DaVinci Resolve 18 Fairlight Audio Post

DAVINCI RESOLVE 18
The Fairlight Audio Guide to
DaVinci
Resolve 18
Download
DAVINCI
RESOLVE 18
Free!
Author: Mary Plummer
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DaVinci
Resolve 18
The Fairlight Audio Guide to DaVinci Resolve 18
Mary Plummer
© 2023 by Blackmagic Design Pty Ltd
Blackmagic Design
www.blackmagicdesign.com
To report errors, please send a note to learning@blackmagicdesign.com.
Series Editor: Patricia Montesion
Editors: Dan Foster
Cover Design: Blackmagic Design
Layout: Blackmagic Design, Danielle Foster
Notice of Rights
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information
on getting permission for reprints and excerpts, contact learning@blackmagicdesign.com.
Notice of Liability
Neither the author nor Blackmagic Design shall have any liability to any person or entity for any loss or damage caused
or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book, or by omissions from this book,
or by the computer software and hardware products described within it.
Trademarks
Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks.
Where those designations appear in this book, and Blackmagic Design was aware of a trademark claim, the designations
appear as requested by the owner of the trademark. All other product names and services identified throughout
this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement
of the trademark. No such use, or the use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation
with this book.
macOS is a registered trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Windows is a registered
trademark of Microsoft Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
ISBN: 979-8-9872671-4-1
Contents
Foreword ix
Acknowledgments x
About the Author x
Who This Book Is For xi
Getting Started xii
Introducing Blackmagic Cloud xxii
1 Building a Soundtrack 1
Opening and Playing a Project 2
Previewing Audio Clips in the Media Pool 11
Working with Markers 14
Adding Audio Clips to the Timeline 17
Naming and Moving Tracks 19
Marking and Editing Select Portions of a Clip 20
Changing Clip Volume Levels in the Inspector 24
Showing, Hiding, and Zooming In and Out of Tracks 26
Changing Clip Levels in the Timeline 29
Manually Creating a New Track 33
Adding Sound Effects to the Sound Library 34
Moving and Trimming Clips to the Timeline Grid 38
Balancing Track Levels 47
More Drama Please! 54
Lesson Review 54
2 Recording Voiceover and ADR 57

Setting Up Your Microphone 58
Preparing the Project 59
Previewing the Scene for Context 61
Choosing a Location for New Audio Recordings 66
Creating a New Timeline for Recording 69
Contents iii
Patching a Track for Recording 72
Recording in the Timeline 77
Setting Up an ADR Session 83
Recording ADR Cues in the Timeline 92
Importing an ADR Cue List 95
Recording the Built-In System Generator 101
Practicing More FX 109
Lesson Review 110
3 Working with Audio Track Layers 113

Streamlining the Fairlight Interface for Audio Editing 115
Moving Clips to Different Audio Layers 117
Aligning and Splitting Audio Clips 119
Working with a Nested Timeline 128
Building a Voiceover Composite Track 132
Creating Crossfades in Audio Track Layers 144
Lesson Review 151
4 Preparing Multichannel Clips for Dialogue Editing 153

Evaluating Dialogue Tracks and Audio Channels 155
Lesson Review 181
5 Editing Dialogue Tracks 183

What Does the Dialogue Editor Do? 184
Performing Checkerboard Editing on Dialogue Tracks 184
Cleaning Up a Checkerboard Edit 191
Balancing Dialogue Clip Levels 205
Applying Auto-Leveling to Balance Clips 220
Lesson Review 227
iv Contents
6 Repairing and Replacing Unwanted Sounds 229
Exploring the Focus Mode Multi-Tool 232
Reducing Plosives with Keyframes 238
Replacing Words from Outtakes 248
Adding Fades to Smooth Sound Edits 256
Filling Gaps with Room Tone 264
More Room Tone Please! 273
Lesson Review 275
7 Advanced Dialogue Repair 277

Finding the Problem 278
Repairing Dialogue with Fairlight FX Plug-Ins 279
Gating Low-Level Noise 302
Testing Your New Dialogue Repair Skills in a Real-World Clip 305
Dealing with Processor Intensive Plug‑Ins 308
Repairing Dialogue with Voice Isolation (Studio Version Only) 310
Removing Clicks at the Sample Level 318
Retiming Audio with Elastic Wave Time Controls 325
More Audio Repairs Please! 331
Lesson Review 332
8 Enhancing the Soundtrack with Sound Design 335

Analyzing the Soundtrack Stems 338
Creating a Reversed Percussion Transition Effect 341
Syncing Sound Effects to Picture 348
Doubling a Track to Thicken the Sound 352
Multiplying Voices Using the Chorus Plug-In 360
Adding Depth with Time-Based Plug‑Ins 365
Creating Physical Sound Barriers with EQ 381
Working with Foley Sound Effects 385
Lesson Review 406
Contents v
9 Pre-Mixing Levels and Panning Tracks 409
Using Reference Tracks to Set Monitoring Levels 413
Customizing the Interface 420
Evaluating and Setting Initial Track Levels 423
Finding the Right Balance between Two Background Tracks 426
Linking Tracks for Single‑Fader Control 428
Placing Audio in the Panoramic Sound Field 432
Exploring 3D Pan Controls 443
Lesson Review 451
10 Sweetening the Mix 453

Applying Equalization to Dialogue Tracks 454
Controlling Dynamic Range 467
Saving and Applying Track Presets in the Presets Library 475
Using Sidechain Compression to Automatically Dip Music Levels 478
Applying EQ Carving to Improve Dialogue Clarity 482
Lesson Review 485
11 Simplifying the Mix with Busses 487

Exploring the Fairlight Bussing Formats 488
Creating an Auxiliary Reverb Bus 497
Simplifying Mixing Using Busses 507
Creating Additional Output Busses 518
Lesson Review 535
12 Mixing with Automation 537

Exploring Clip vs. Track Automation 539
Automating Track Changes 548
vi Contents
Working with Bus Tracks in the Timeline 563
Moving Automation with Clips 565
Moving a Premixed Timeline into a Master Timeline 570
Lesson Review 575
13 Finishing and Delivering Tracks 577

Bouncing Mixes in the Fairlight Page 580
Bouncing Tracks and Busses to Create Stems 584
Bouncing to Additional Formats 586
Delivering the Mix 593
Audio Finishing with Mixed Stems 597
Delivering a Custom Clip 602
Lesson Review 605
14 Exploring Dolby Atmos Integration 607

Importing and Adding Files to the Timeline 610
Changing the Playback Format 614
Rendering Downmixes 616
Analyzing and Normalizing Levels 621
Exploring Delivery Options 623
Importing a Dolby Atmos Master 629
Viewing “Flying Object” Pan Automation 641
Creating a Dolby Atmos Timeline Preset 646
Exporting Master File 648
Enabling Dolby Atmos for Mixing 650
Applying a Configuration Preset 651
Lesson Review 654
Index 657
Contents vii
Foreword
Welcome to The Fairlight Audio Guide to DaVinci Resolve 18.
DaVinci Resolve 18 is the only post-production solution that combines editing, color
correction, visual effects, motion graphics, and audio post-production all in one software
tool! Its elegant, modern interface is fast to learn for new users yet powerful enough
for the most experienced professionals. DaVinci Resolve lets you work more efficiently
because you don’t have to learn multiple apps or switch software for different tasks. It’s
like having your own post-production studio in a single app!
DaVinci Resolve 18 adds Blackmagic Cloud support for remote collaboration, DaVinci
proxy workflow, new Resolve FX, intuitive object masking, improved subtitling for editors,
Fairlight fixed bus to Flex Bus conversion, and so much more!
Best of all, Blackmagic Design offers a version of DaVinci Resolve 18 that is completely
free! We’ve made sure that this version of DaVinci Resolve includes more features than any
paid editing system. That’s because at Blackmagic Design we believe everybody should
have the tools to create professional, Hollywood-caliber content without having to spend
thousands of dollars.
I invite you to download your copy of DaVinci Resolve 18 today and look forward to seeing
the amazing work you produce!
Grant Petty
Blackmagic Design
Foreword ix
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the following individuals for their contributions of media used
throughout the book:
— Steven Esparza for the Girl on Wave trailer. Girl on Wave is a feature length
documentary film produced and directed by Steven Esparza, and written by
Steven Esparza and Sarah Hauser. Property of ECHOHOUSE films,
www.echohousefilms.com.
— Nguyen-Ahn Nguyen for Hyperlight, a short film produced and directed by
Nguyen-Ahn Nguyen. Written by Nicholas Billon, based on an original idea by Nguyen-
Ahn Nguyen and Simran Dewan. Property of Nguyen-Ahn Nguyen.
— Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (www.dolby.com) for the use of the Dolby Demonstration
audio-visual content Nature’s Fury for the purposes of demonstration of Dolby
technology publicly for training.
About the Author

Mary Plummer is a professional video editor, audio artist, and composer with over 20
years of experience in video and film production. Mary is based in Los Angeles, California,
where she lives with her husband, Klark Perez, and daughter Kathryn. She has worked on
a wide range of productions from coast to coast, including shorts, PSAs, trailers, music
videos, documentaries, and independent feature films. Between projects, Mary has written
more than a dozen industry training books including Apple Pro Training Series: GarageBand
(all versions), Apple Pro Training Series: Soundtrack, Apple Pro Training Series: Soundtrack
Pro, Apple Pro Training Series: Getting Started with Final Cut Studio, and Media Composer
6: Part 1—Editing Essentials (Avid Learning). She has also created over 26 hours of online
Logic Pro X videos.
Mary currently works for Blackmagic Design with their marketing and curriculum
development team.
x Acknowledgments – About the Author

Who This Book Is For
This hands-on training guide is designed for DaVinci Resolve editors, audio newcomers,
and experienced audio professionals who want to create, enhance, and mix soundtracks in
the Fairlight page. Each lesson takes you step by step through practical real-world projects
such as a feature film trailer and scenes from a science-fiction narrative film. You’ll start
out building a powerful trailer soundtrack, and then move on to recording voiceover and
ADR tracks, as well as editing and repairing dialogue. Next, you’ll explore sound design
secrets to layer sound and use FairlightFX plug-ins to add depth and dimension to your
tracks. Finally, you’ll step through advanced mixing techniques to balance, sweeten, pan,
automate, bounce, and deliver your finished soundtrack. Download DaVinci Resolve 18
software for free at: blackmagicdesign.com.
Who This Book Is For xi

Getting Started
Welcome to The Fairlight Audio Guide to DaVinci Resolve 18, an official Blackmagic
Design certified training book that teaches professionals and students the art of sound
design, recording, editing, sweetening, and mixing, as well as how to get the most out
of audio tracks created and edited in DaVinci Resolve 18. Beginning audio editors and
assistants will find clear workflow-driven lessons, while seasoned audio professionals
will quickly grasp Fairlight’s user-friendly tools for realizing incredible sound.
As you step through the lessons, you’ll gain experience with Fairlight’s powerful new
features: ADR tools, external sound libraries, video and audio scrollers, fixed-playhead
playback, clip normalization, built-in native audio plug-ins, and more! Best of all, you no
longer need to send projects out to another audio application because DaVinci Resolve 18
puts professional audio post tools just a click away from your editing tools and timeline.
This guide blends practical, hands-on exercises with the real-world “craft” of audio post-
production such as sound editing, dialogue editing, dialogue repair and replacement,
sound design, sound effects editing, and mixing. As you step through Resolve 18’s real-
world audio post-production tools and workflows, you’ll discover new techniques for
whatever tasks you take on. You’ll go deeply into audio editing and mixing in the Resolve’s
Fairlight page to explore tricks and techniques used by professional audio editors, sound
designers, and engineers to enhance the soundtracks in your projects.
After completing this book, you are encouraged to take the 50-question online proficiency
exam to receive a Certificate of Completion from Blackmagic Design. The link to the exam
is located at the end of this book.
xii Getting Started

About DaVinci Resolve 18
DaVinci Resolve is the world’s fastest growing and most advanced editing software. It
also has a long history of being the world’s most trusted application for color correction.
DaVinci Resolve 18 includes a complete digital audio workstation (DAW) with professional
recording, audio editing, and mixing tools that enable you to complete projects using
only one piece of software!
What You’ll Learn

In these lessons, you’ll work with multiple projects and timelines to learn both fundamental
and advanced practical techniques used in several audio production genres. You’ll acquire
real-world skills that you can apply to real-world productions.
Lesson 1
Plunges you into the middle of an exciting movie trailer’s soundtrack as you explore the
Fairlight page interface and tools and finish building the soundtrack.
Lesson 2
Utilizes three practical recording techniques to develop voiceover tracks; perform
automated dialogue replacement (ADR); and use Resolve’s built-in oscillator, to record
noise and tones that you can apply to multiple creative sound design and sound
effects tasks.
Lesson 3
Explores Resolve 18’s unique audio track layers. You will edit a composite of the best takes
from a voiceover recording and create crossfades between music clips in the same track.
Lessons 4, 5, 6, and 7
These lessons focus on dialogue tracks and the jobs of a dialogue editor. In Lesson 4,
you’ll explore channel mapping as you prepare multichannel clips for dialogue editing.
In Lesson 5, you’ll create a checkerboard edit that splits each character’s dialogue clips
to a separate track, and balance the clip levels within each track. In Lesson 6, you’ll apply
common dialogue repair and replacement techniques to reduce plosives and other
unwanted sounds, and then stitch together a room tone track to create a seamless
dialogue scene. In Lesson 7, you’ll use advanced FairlightFX dialogue repair tools such as
the De-Hummer, De-Esser, and Noise Reduction plug-ins—as well as the gate dynamics
processor in the mixer to remove hum, sibilance, and noise.
Getting Started xiii

Lesson 8
This Lesson focuses on sound design for enhancing a soundtrack. In Lesson 8, you’ll use
Pitch and Chorus plug-ins to change a human voiceover into a processed computer voice,
and you’ll experiment with time-based plug-ins to add depth and dimension to Foley
sound effects.
Lessons 9, 10, 11, and 12

These lessons demystify the art of mixing and sweetening your soundtrack and cover the
tools and techniques you’ll use to polish and complete a mix.
Lesson 13
This lesson steps you through bouncing stereo and 5.1 timelines to create stems. You’ll
also explore a finishing workflow for panning and linking six mono tracks into a single 5.1
surround track. Then, you’ll move to the delivery page to render your final stems and mix
to meet various delivery standards.
Lesson 14
In this lesson, you’ll work with a professionally produced Dolby Atmos project to explore
the Dolby Atmos integration built right into the Fairlight page.
The Blackmagic Design Training and Certification Program

Blackmagic Design publishes several training books that take your skills farther in
DaVinci Resolve 18. They include:
— The Beginner’s Guide to DaVinci Resolve 18

— The Colorist Guide to DaVinci Resolve 18
— The Editor’s Guide to DaVinci Resolve 18
— The Fairlight Audio Guide to DaVinci Resolve 18
— The Visual Effects Guide to DaVinci Resolve 18
Whether you want an introductory guide to DaVinci Resolve or you want to learn more
advanced editing techniques, color grading, sound mixing, or visual effects, our certified
training program includes a learning path for you.
After completing this book, you are encouraged to take a 1-hour, 50-question online
proficiency exam to receive a certificate of completion from Blackmagic Design. The link
to the online exam can be found on the Blackmagic Design training web page.
xiv Getting Started

The web page also provides additional information on our official Training and Certification
Program. Please visit www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/training.
System Requirements
This book supports DaVinci Resolve 18 for Mac and Windows. If you have an older version of
DaVinci Resolve, you must upgrade to the current version to follow along with the lessons.
NOTE The exercises in this book refer to file and resource locations that will
differ if you are using the version of software from the Apple Mac App Store.
For the purposes of this training book, if you are using macOS we recommend
downloading the DaVinci Resolve software from the Blackmagic Design website,
and not the Mac App store.
Download DaVinci Resolve

To download the free version of DaVinci Resolve 18 or later from the Blackmagic
Design website:
1 Open a web browser on your Windows or Mac computer.
2 In the address field of your web browser, type: www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/

davinciresolve.
3 On the DaVinci Resolve landing page, click the Download button.
4 On the download page, click the Mac or Windows button, depending on your
computer’s operating system.
5 Follow the installation instructions to complete the installation.
Getting Started xv
When you have completed the software installation, follow the instructions in the following
section, “Acquiring the Lesson Files,” to download the content for this book.
Acquiring the Lesson Files

The DaVinci Resolve lesson files must be downloaded to your Mac or Windows computer
to perform the exercises in this book. After you save the files to your hard disk, extract the
file and copy the folder to your Movies folder (Mac) or Videos folder (Windows).
To Download and Install the DaVinci Resolve Lessons Files:

When you are ready to download the lesson files, follow these steps:
1 Open a web browser on your Windows or Mac computer.
2 In the address field of your web browser, type: www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/

davinciresolve/training.
3 Scroll the page until you locate The Fairlight Audio Guide to DaVinci Resolve 18.
4 Click the Lesson Files Part 1 link to download the media for the first lesson of the book.
The R18 Fairlight Part 1.zip file is roughly 480 MB in size.
5 Click the Lesson Files Part 2 link to download additional media for Lessons 1, 2, and 8.
The R18 Fairlight Part 2.zip file is roughly 400 MB in size.
6 Click the Lesson Files Part 3 link to download the media for the project you will use for
Lessons 2 through 13. The R18 Fairlight Part 3.zip file is roughly 4.7 GB in size.
7 Click the Lesson Files Part 4 link to download the media for the project you will use for
Lesson 14. The R18 Fairlight Part 4.zip file is roughly 570 MB in size.
8 After downloading all four of the zip files to your computer, open your Downloads
folder and double-click to unzip them if they haven’t unzipped automatically.
9 In your chosen storage location—for example, Documents—create a new folder called

R18 Fairlight Audio Guide Media.
10 From your Downloads folder, drag the R18 Fairlight Part 1, R18 Fairlight Part 2, R18
Fairlight Part 3, and R18 Fairlight Part 4 folders into the R18 Fairlight Audio Guide
Media folder that you created in the previous step.
Your media is ready for the first lesson.
xvi Getting Started

Getting Certified
After completing this book, you are encouraged to take the one-hour, 50-question online
proficiency exam to receive a Certificate of Completion from Blackmagic Design. The link to
this exam is located at the end of this book.
Downloading Sound Effects to

Use in the Sound Library
DaVinci Resolve 18 includes a Sound Library panel in the interface toolbar for browsing
sound effects libraries available on your system or on a SAN (storage area network) you’re
connected to. The Sound Library scans and indexes sound collections so they can easily
be searched, previewed, and auditioned in the timeline. You’ll use the Sound Library in
the Fairlight page in Lessons 1 and 8. A sampler of 40 sound effects has been included
with the book media for you to use during the book exercises. The Fairlight Sound Library,
which is a free library of more than 500 professionally recorded Foley sound effects, is
available to download and use directly from within the Sound Library panel.
It’s a good idea to index your personal sound effects collections and project-specific sound
collections that belong to the client in separate project libraries in the Project Manager to
keep them organized by collection and to make it easier to remove them if needed when a
project is done.
In the next exercise, you’ll create a new Project Library for the Sound Library that you can
use to index the sound effects that come with the project media.
Creating a New Project Library

for the Sound Library
Before you start Lesson 1, you’ll need to create a new project library for the “Sound FX
Sampler for Fairlight” folder that was included with the additional media for this book.
Although you can create a project library at any time, if you create a library for your sound
effects now, you’ll be able to stay on task in Lesson 1 and simply add the sound effects to
your project library that you made specifically for those sounds.
With DaVinci Resolve 18, project libraries can be Local, Network, or Cloud-based. Local
project libraries are for projects and media on your system. Network project libraries are
for computers networked in the same building or network. Cloud project libraries can be
shared by users anywhere in the world.
For this book, you’ll create and use a Local project library.
Getting Started xvii

To create a new Local project library:
1 Click the Show/Hide Project Libraries button at the upper left of the Projects window to
open the Project Library sidebar.
2 At the bottom of the sidebar, click the Add Project Library button.
When the Add Project Library window appears, do the following:
— In the Name field, type soundfx.

— Click the Browse button and then click in the Location field and use the file system
navigation dialog to locate the Documents folder.
— In the Documents folder, click New Folder. In the New Folder dialog, type
Sound FX R18. Click Create.
xviii Getting Started

3 Select the new Sound FX folder, if necessary, and click Open to create the new
database in the Sound FX folder.
4 In the New Database dialog, click Create.
The new disk database appears in the Disk database section of the Databases sidebar.
The new soundfx database that you created will be used for indexing sound effects in
Lesson 1.
5 In the Project Manager, open the local disk database that you wish to use for the
lesson projects.
You are now ready to begin Lesson 1, “Building a Soundtrack.”
Download the Fairlight Sound Library

You can download the Fairlight Sound Library, a royalty-free collection of more than
500 professionally recorded foley sounds that you can use in your own projects, directly
from the Sound Library panel. The Fairlight Sound Library features foley sounds such as
footsteps, body falls, door creaks, and more. This free sound library is designed to work
with the Fairlight Foley Sampler plug-in, which lets you use the mouse or a MIDI keyboard
to trigger sounds so they can be recorded in sync with the video onscreen. You only need
to download and install the Fairlight Sound Library one time on your system. Once it has
been installed, you will be able to use it with any DaVinci Resolve project on your system.
Getting Started xix

To download the Fairlight Sound Library:
1 Open DaVinci Resolve, if necessary.
2 In the Project Manager window, open a new project or an existing project. Any project
will work.
3 In the Fairlight page, in the interface toolbar in the upper left of the page, click the
Sound Library tab to show the Sound Library panel.
If the Fairlight Sound Library is not installed on your system, you will see the following
message along with a handy Download button.
xx Getting Started
NOTE If you do not see the “Download DaVinci Resolve’s Free Sound Library”
message in the Sound Library panel, you already have it installed and you can
move on to Lesson 1.
If you wish to register, download, and install the free Fairlight Sound Library, you can
do so now, or later if you prefer. This is completely optional and is not required to
follow along with the book exercises or certification exam.
4 Click the Download button to go to the Blackmagic Design website support page and
the Blackmagic Fairlight Sound Library 1.0 Register and Download form.
5 Fill out the online form and start the download. Once the download is complete, run
the installer.
The installer creates a library (database) and indexes the sounds automatically so they
will be ready to use the next time you open DaVinci Resolve.
MORE INFO You can learn more about the Sound Library in the “Using the
Fairlight Page” section of the DaVinci Resolve Reference Manual available via
the Help menu.
Getting Started xxi

Introducing Blackmagic Cloud
DaVinci Resolve is the world’s only complete post-production solution that lets everyone
work together on the same project at the same time. Traditionally, post-production
follows a linear workflow with each artist handing off to the next, introducing errors and
mountains of change logs to keep track of through each stage. With DaVinci Resolve’s
collaboration features, each artist can work on the same project, in their own dedicated
page with the tools they need.
Now Blackmagic Cloud lets editors, colorists, VFX artists, animators, and sound engineers
work together simultaneously from anywhere in the world. Plus, they can review each
other’s changes without spending countless hours reconforming the timeline.
Simply create a Blackmagic Cloud ID, log in to the online DaVinci Resolve Project Server,
and follow the simple instructions to set up a new project library—all for one low
monthly price!
Once created, you can access this library directly from the Cloud tab in the Project
Manager to create as many projects as you need—all stored securely online. Then invite up
to 10 other people to collaborate on a project with you. With a simple click, they can relink
to local copies of the media files and start working on the project immediately, with all their
changes automatically saved to the cloud.
Enabling Multiple User Collaboration for your project means that everyone can work on
the same project at the same time—edit assistants, editors, colorists, dialogue editors,
and visual effects artists can now all collaborate wherever they are in the world in a way
never before possible.
Media Sync with Blackmagic Cloud Store

Now you don’t need to buy expensive proprietary storage that needs an entire IT team to
manage! Blackmagic Cloud Store has been designed for multiple users and can handle the
huge media files used by Hollywood feature films. You can also have multiple Blackmagic
Cloud Stores syncing the media files with your Dropbox account so that everyone has
access to the media files for the project.
To find out more about these exciting workflows, visit blackmagicdesign.com/products/

davinciresolve/collaboration
xxii Introducing Blackmagic Cloud

Lesson 1
Building a
Soundtrack
Audio post-production is more than Time

simply adjusting volume levels and This lesson takes approximately
75 minutes to complete.
mixing tracks. In fact, as you embark
on your journey through this book Goals
and your own projects keep your eye
on the big picture. That is, the visual Previewing Audio Clips
and audio components of a project in the Media Pool 11
are of equal importance, and it takes Working with Markers 14
only a few seconds of audio–good or Adding Audio Clips to the Timeline 17
bad–for someone to form an opinion Naming and Moving Tracks 19
for your entire production. And here’s Marking and Editing Select
Portions of a Clip 20
the kicker: the audience doesn’t care
Changing Clip Volume Levels
how you got there; they just want the
in the Inspector 24
experience to be awesome. So, it is
Showing, Hiding, and Zooming
up to you as the audio editor, sound In and Out of Tracks 26
designer, supervising sound editor, Changing Clip Levels in the Timeline 29
re-recording mixer, or all of the above Manually Creating a New Track 33
to deliver a professional‑quality Adding Sound Effects
soundtrack regardless of your budget, to the Sound Library 34
format, length, deliverables, or Moving and Trimming Clips

to the Timeline Grid 38
distribution methods.
More Drama Please! 54
Lesson Review 54
Luckily, the Fairlight page in DaVinci Resolve 18 includes all the tools you’ll need to
transform your basic production sound into a fully realized soundtrack from start to finish.
In this lesson, you’ll step into the role of the audio editor at a busy trailer post-production
house where you use the Fairlight page to finish building an exciting 1-minute trailer
soundtrack for the documentary film Girl on Wave, directed by Steven Esparza of EchoHouse
Films. Along the way, you will explore the interface, build tracks, edit and trim audio clips,
and balance the volume levels while taking ongoing directions from the “clients” to follow
their creative lead as inspiration strikes. Let’s get started.
NOTE This project assumes you have downloaded the media for this book.
If you are unsure, return to the “Getting Started” section of this book and follow
the download instructions in “Acquiring the Lesson Files.”
Opening and Playing a Project

In this scenario, the original audio editor has called in sick, and it’s up to you to finish it
within the hour for the clients who are down the hall grabbing a double latte. This lesson
introduces you to the primary interface elements and tools you need as you go.
Let’s begin by opening the project with most of the trailer soundtrack already created
so you can get to know the Fairlight audio timeline and playback controls. Once you are
comfortable with navigation and playback, you’ll use additional interface panels and tools
to finish the project.
2 Lesson 1 Building a Soundtrack

1 In the Project Manager, right-click and choose Restore Project Archive. Select R18
Fairlight Audio Guide Media > The R18 Fairlight Part 1 > lesson 01 build soundtrack.dra
and click Open.
The toolbar includes The transport controls include The interface toolbar shows
zoom sliders, commands, standard and audio-specific and hides various palettes
and modes buttons. transport functions. such as the mixer and meters.
monitoring panel
single-channel audio track viewer
multi-channel audio track
mixer
timeline audio clips
The default Fairlight page layout includes the timeline, monitoring panel, and mixer.
The timeline is optimized for audio mixing and uses single channel or multichannel tracks.
The project opens in the Fairlight page with the audio timeline, monitoring panel,
and mixer visible. The 1 GOW Trailer Basic Tracks Start timeline includes six colorful
audio tracks. The track colors were added for this lesson to help organize each track’s
contents ranging from dialogue to sound effects and music.
NOTE If your project does not open to the Fairlight page, or additional panels
are visible, click the Fairlight button at the bottom of the screen to go to that
page. To reset your user interface, at the top of the page, choose Workspace >
Reset UI Layout.

2 In the upper-left corner of the timeline window, click the timelines dropdown menu to
see all the project’s timelines. In the list of timelines, choose 4 GOW Trailer Mix.
This timeline has only one stereo track containing the finished mix of the trailer.
The corresponding frame of video is displayed in the viewer in the upper-right corner
of the interface.
To move the playhead to a specific timecode, you can use the timeline ruler and
corresponding timecode display as a guide.
Timecode display
Timeline ruler Playhead
TIP You can right-click the timecode display to choose a different timecode
format including SubFrame, Samples, and film Feet and Frames.
3 Press the Home key or click the Timecode ruler at the beginning of the timeline
to move the playhead to that position (00:00:00:00).
The transport controls above the timeline toolbar are the standard buttons that you’ll
find on any professional audio recording and playback device.
Automation
Fast forward Stop Loop Controls
Rewind Play Record Toggle

Automation

4 In the transport controls, click the Play button or press the Spacebar to start playback.
During playback, watch the meters and video playback in the monitoring panel at the
top of the window and the meters in the mixer to the right side of the screen.
As the name suggests, the monitoring panel displays all the audio and video contents
of the current timeline. The mixer shows a large channel strip for each track, as well as
the main output.
If you’re gripping the edge of your desk with white knuckles and thinking that there are
too many meters and buttons to keep track of, you can relax. The Fairlight page is as
user-friendly as it is powerful. At any time, you can simplify the interface to show just
those tools you need as you need them.
5 Press the Spacebar to stop playback.
6 In the interface toolbar at the upper right of the screen, click the Mixer button to hide
the mixer.
You’ll work with the mixer and monitoring panels extensively in later lessons. For now, let’s
simplify the interface by expanding the viewer as a separate window and hiding the meters.

TIP Pressing the Home and End keys will move you to the start or end of a timeline,
respectively. Some Mac keyboards do not have Home and End keys. When using
one of those keyboards, press Fn-Left Arrow to move to the start of the timeline
and Fn-Right Arrow to move to the end.
Monitoring Video Only

In a traditional audio-post workflow, an audio editor will need a separate reference video
to use as a guide when building the soundtrack. In Resolve, you do not need a reference
video because the Fairlight page includes a handy viewer that shows the timeline’s video.
As you have already discovered, the viewer is located to the far-right side of the monitoring
panel. You can easily expand the viewer as a separate floating window.
1 In the lower-right corner of the viewer, click the Expand button or choose Workspace >
Fairlight > Floating to turn the viewer into a floating window.
The viewer appears in the middle of the interface. Now, you can drag the top of the
viewer to move it, and drag its edges or corners to resize it.
2 Click the Meters button to hide the monitoring panel.

3 Drag the viewer down to the bottom of the empty tracks area in the timeline. Then,
drag the upper-right corner of the viewer to resize it to about twice its original size.
When you are finished, the viewer should fit nicely in the lower half of the timeline.
To return the viewer to the monitoring panel, you can click the Dock button in the
upper-right corner of the viewer, or press Return/Enter. For now, let’s leave the viewer
open as a separate window.
NOTE Feel free to resize or move the viewer at any time as you work through
these exercises.
If you have a Blackmagic DeckLink card or UltraStudio, you can also view the video on a
second video display.
Evaluating Tracks During Playback

Actively listening to and evaluating tracks during playback is a necessary step
toward building powerful soundtracks. It involves listening to tracks played together,
independently, and in various combinations to determine if they are working as a whole.
Normally, you would not be able to fast-forward to the end of a project and listen to its mix
ahead of time. However, because this is a training book, and you happen to have the mix
already in your timeline, this is a wonderful opportunity to see and hear what you are striving
to accomplish before you build the tracks in this lesson. In this exercise, you’ll listen to the
finished mix once, and then open the starting version of the timeline and evaluate the tracks.

1 Press the Home key to move the playhead to the beginning of the timeline. Then play
the timeline once to see and hear the finished trailer.
Now that you have heard the mix, let’s go back to the starting timeline.
2 In the timeline dropdown menu, choose 1 GOW Trailer Basic Tracks Start.
To evaluate the tracks, you can use the controls in the track headers. At the left of each
track, the header shows each track’s name, number, and control buttons.
Track name field Meters
Track number Solo button
Volume Arm
field button
Lock Mute
button button
3 Move the playhead to the beginning of the timeline.
4 Click any empty space on the A1 DIALOGUE track header to select that track.
Notice that when a track header is selected, the name and number turn red, and the
track brightens.

5 Click any empty space in the timeline to deselect the A1 track.
NOTE Track selection is important when you are recording or editing using
shortcuts. You can evaluate tracks without selecting them; however, it is always
a good idea to be aware of which tracks or clips are selected as you work.
Now let’s try using the Solo and Mute buttons on several tracks. Solo isolates a track by
temporarily muting all other tracks. Mute silences a track until it is unmuted. You can
click these buttons to toggle each control on and off during playback.
6 Solo the A2 WAVES 1 track, and then mute the A5 WIND track.
7 Start playback from the beginning of the timeline. At around 00:00:12:00, unsolo the
A2 track. Then, solo the A1 DIALOGUE track and listen to the last two dialogue clips.
When you are finished, stop playback.
As you can hear, the Mute and Solo buttons are an easy way to selectively listen to
specific tracks during playback. You can also swipe them on or off to quickly solo
multiple tracks at once. Let’s leave the A5 track muted and try swiping the Solo buttons
on the other sound effects tracks.
Your goal is to evaluate the sound effects tracks to see how well they enhance the
impact of the visuals. First, you’ll listen only to the waves and water sound effects (FX)
on tracks A2, A3, and A4. Then, you’ll play the timeline again while listening to all the
tracks and evaluate the A5 WIND track with the other tracks.
8 Unsolo the A1 track. Start playback from the beginning of the timeline. Starting from
the Solo button on the A2 track, drag downward across the Solo buttons on the A3
and A4 tracks. When you are finished playing the clips, stop playback.

9 Swipe off the Solo buttons on the A2, A3, and A4 tracks.
10 Mute the A1 track.
Now it’s time to evaluate the section of the timeline that includes the wind effect. Instead
of starting playback at the beginning of the timeline, let’s start closer to the action.
11 Click the timeline ruler between the yellow and teal markers (at around 00:00:07:10).
12 Start playback and click the Mute button on the A5 WIND track to toggle the
track off and on several times to hear the soundtrack without and with the wind
sound. When the wind clip is finished and the viewer shows underwater footage,
stop playback.
13 Unmute the A1 and A5 tracks.
14 To replay the exact same section of the timeline, choose Playback > Play Again, or
press Option-L (macOS) or Alt-L (Windows).
15 Stop playback when the wind clip is finished.

By now, you should have formed an opinion about the effectiveness of the various tracks
and the wind effect, specifically. For the purposes of this lesson, you will keep it. Here is
another truth when you are working with motion picture sound: reel does not equal real.
In other words, sound effects used in soundtracks are much larger than real life.
Take this trailer as an example. Not only was a wind effect present in the actual trailer’s
soundtrack, but the sound of a tornado was included to really intensify the sense of
danger. As you work through these lessons, you’ll learn that sound is cumulative, and
a little bit goes a long way. Even so, sometimes during key dramatic moments, more is
better, and on occasion too much is best.
Sound designers routinely mix all kinds of sounds to create more dramatic effects such as
adding a lion’s roar to the Death Star explosion in Star Wars IV: A New Hope, or in this case,
violent winds to intensify the sound of strong waves.
By the way, the clients returned with their double lattes while you were evaluating the
tracks, and they are anxious to see how the second half of the trailer works with the music.
What music? The exciting trailer music is conveniently located in the media pool with the
other audio files.
Next, you’ll explore the media pool to preview, mark, and edit additional audio clips into
the timeline—starting with the music.
Previewing Audio Clips

in the Media Pool
The media pool contains all the media and timelines in your current project. In this
exercise, you’ll select and preview several audio clips and add them to the timeline.
Whenever you load a clip into the preview player, you can preview the entire clip from its
first available frame to the last.
1 In the upper-left corner of the interface toolbar, click the Media Pool button to open
the media pool.

The media pool opens on the left side of the Fairlight page. For the simplicity of this
first lesson, the media for this project was organized into three bins: Video Clips,
Audio Clips, and Timelines.
Waveform zoom
dropdown menu
Source audio
waveforms
Jog bar
playhead
Preview transport Mark In/Out buttons

controls Media pool
toolbar
Show/hide
bin list
Master
bin list
Source audio clips
2 In the media pool bin list, click the Audio Clips bin to view its contents.
You can view source clips in either metadata or thumbnail view. The default is
thumbnail view. If you look carefully, you’ll see that each audio clip’s thumbnail shows a
graphical representation of the waveform.
3 Select the Get With Me for GOW Trailer clip to load it into the preview player at the
top of the media pool.

4 Press the Home key to move the playhead to the beginning of the clip in the preview
player. Then, click the Play button or press the Spacebar to preview the clip. When you
are finished, click Stop, or press the Spacebar.
To see more information about your media files, let’s change to list view.
5 In the media pool toolbar, click the List View button.
List view is handy for reading clip names and sorting clips by a specific column. In
this case, let’s use the list view to find and preview another type of music clip called
a stinger. Stingers are single notes or chords–often strings–that are inserted to add
tension and suspense.
6 Select and preview the clip STINGER. While you listen to the clip, try to imagine where
it might go in the soundtrack.
So, what did you think of the stinger? The clients love it! Out of context, the stinger might
seem like overkill, but once it is placed in the timeline and the levels are balanced with
the other tracks, you’ll understand the power of the stinger. Any idea where to place it?
Stay tuned to find out.
You’ll add these clips previewed to the timeline in a few minutes. First, let’s look at the
Markers index and the timeline markers that you’ll use as a guide for adding the clips.

Working with Markers
Markers are often used in audio post-production as a guide to setting music cues,
marking sound effects, or identifying elements such as dialogue problems that need to be
addressed. In this exercise, you’ll use existing markers to aid navigation in the timeline and
Markers index. When you become comfortable with markers, you can use them as a
guide when adding clips to the timeline in the next section. Let’s start by looking at
the Markers Index.
1 In the upper-left corner of the interface toolbar, click the Index button to open the
Index panel. Then, at the top of the Index panel, click the Markers button to show the
Markers index.
The Markers index opens in the lower-left corner of the page below the media pool.
Here you can see the current timeline markers and a corresponding thumbnail frame
for each marker. Just as with the media pool, you can view the markers in either
thumbnail or list view.
2 In the Markers index toolbar, click the List View button to change the index to list view.
In list view, you can see columns that show each marker’s number, name, and other
information. You can use the marker thumbnail icons to move the playhead to the
selected marker. Let’s try it.

3 Double-click the thumbnail thumbnail for Marker 7 to move the playhead to that frame.
Here is where you will add the first music clip. Let’s take a moment to streamline the
information in the Markers index columns.
4 Right-click the column headers and deselect all the checkboxes except #, Frame,
Name, Color, Notes, and Keyword.
Now you can clearly see the Name, Color, and Notes for each marker in the list.
NOTE You can sort the marker list by any column header.
Working with Markers 15

To navigate between markers in the timeline, you can hold down the Shift key and press
the Up Arrow or Down Arrow keys. Pressing Shift-Down Arrow moves down the timeline
to the next marker. Pressing Shift-Up Arrow moves the playhead to the previous marker.
5 Click anywhere in the timeline to make it active. Then press Shift-Down Arrow to move
to the next marker.
6 In the timeline, double-click the yellow marker beneath the playhead to open the
Markers panel, and enter the information as follows:
— In the Name field, type VO Line 4.

— In the Notes field, type My name is Sarah Hauser, and this is my story.
— Triple-click the text in the Name field to select it. Then, right-click the selection and
choose > Copy. This added step isn’t necessary but will save time later when you
need to type the same text again.
7 Click Done.
The Markers index updates to show the new marker 8 information.
8 In the timeline, press Shift-Up Arrow to move the playhead to the previous marker, or
in the index, double-click marker 7.
In the next exercise, you’ll add a music clip to the timeline using this marker as a guide.
NOTE You can edit marker names and notes directly in the Index.

Adding Audio Clips to the Timeline
Once you find a clip that you want to work with, and you know where you want to place it in
the timeline, you need only drag it from the media pool to the timeline. You can add clips
to an existing track or create a new track by dragging a clip to the empty space below the
current tracks. In this exercise, you’ll add the Get With Me… clip to the MUSIC track and
create a new track for the stinger.
The preview player includes a handy dropdown menu that shows the 10 most recently
accessed clips.
1 At the top of the media pool, click the dropdown menu arrow and select
Get With Me for GOW Trailer.wav.
2 Drag the clip from the waveforms at the top of the preview player to the playhead
position in the A6 MUSIC track.
The clip appears in the track once you release it.
3 Resize and move the viewer to the lower-right corner of the timeline to make room for
the next music clip.
It’s time to add the stinger to a new track. You could place it in the A6 track with the
other music clips, but because there’s no limit to the number of tracks you can use in
your soundtrack, let’s create a new one just for the stinger.
As for placing it, your clients suggest that you place it right before she falls, or right
after she falls, or perhaps under the close-up shot of her face while she reflects on the
fall. In light of the clients’ indecision, let’s try starting it with the dramatic wind FX.
Move the playhead to the teal-colored Wind FX marker (00:00:08:15).
Adding Audio Clips to the Timeline 17

This time you’ll drag the stinger clip from the media pool list to the empty space below
the timeline tracks. By doing so, a new track is created for the source audio clip. When
you drag the clip to the empty space in the timeline, you will see a translucent image of
the new clip in the new track before you release the clip.
4 Drag the STINGER clip from the media pool list to the playhead position (the Wind FX
marker) below the A6 track.
A new A7 track appears along with the stinger clip.
5 Play the timeline from the beginning and listen to the new music clips in the soundtrack.
The soundtrack is coming along nicely. As you just heard, the right music choices make a
big difference. In this case, the stinger adds a dramatic element to the action sequence,
and the theme song carries the entire second half of the trailer without the presence of
any other sound effects.
TIP With DaVinci Resolve 18, you can change the volume level of a clip in the media
pool prior to editing it to the timeline. This can be a real time saver as you work.
Simply select the clip in the media pool and adjust the level in the Inspector while
using the Control Room meters as a guide.

Naming and Moving Tracks
Descriptively naming and organizing your tracks can save you time later in your mixing
process. In this exercise, you’ll name the A7 track and move it above the other music track.
1 Double-click the A7 track name field, which is currently named Audio 7.
2 Type STING and press Return/Enter to rename it.
To move a track up or down, you can use the right-click shortcut menu in the
track header.
3 Right-click the A7 track header, and choose Move Track Up.
The STING track moves above the MUSIC track, while the track numbers remain in order.
Next, you’ll apply all the skills you’ve learned so far to preview and edit the last voiceover clip.
TIP To quickly rename sequential tracks, select the Name field of the first track
and type the name in the field. Then, press Tab to automatically select the Name
field in the next track so you can type a name. Continue to press Tab as needed to
sequentially move to the next name field. Additionally, you can drag and drop to
change the order of individual tracks or multiple selected tracks in the tracks index.
Naming and Moving Tracks 19

Marking and Editing Select
Portions of a Clip
So far, you have previewed and added whole audio clips. However, in audio post-
production, you’ll often work with long clips comprising multiple takes. When you are
working with a clip that includes more content than you need, you can place markers on
the clip to label specific sections. You can also mark a useful clip range by placing In and
Out points. In this exercise, you’ll use both methods to mark the clip.
Production audio files often have complicated numeric names based on the recording
metadata. Although you could rename the clips or use metadata as a reference as to
their content, it’s a good idea to keep the original names when the clips are edited into
the timeline. As luck would have it, the voiceover file for this timeline has a numeric name.
Instead of hunting for the clip you need, let’s use one of the voiceover clips already in
the timeline to find the original clip in the media pool.
1 In the A1 DIALOGUE track, right-click one of the yellow clips, and choose Find in
Media Pool.
The source clip is selected in the media pool and source viewer. Notice the yellow
markers in the preview player jog bar. You can navigate through clip markers in the
preview player just as you can with timeline markers. They also appear in the Clip
Name list.

2 Click the arrow at the left side of the clip’s icon to show the markers in the media
pool list.
3 In the list, click the marker named Line 3 to move the preview player playhead to
that marker.
NOTE You can press Shift-Up Arrow or Shift-Down Arrow to move from marker
to marker in the preview player. Also, when the playhead moves to a marker,
the marker information appears in the preview player.
Your goal is to choose the best take for Line 4 and mark it. Let’s change the zoom level
in the preview player to see more of the clip’s audio, and then use the jog bar to find
the last line of voiceover.

4 In the upper-left corner of the source viewer, in the Zoom menu, choose 1x.
At this zoom level, you can clearly see the multiple voiceover phrases over time.
Each phrase has a distinctive appearance in the waveform.
5 Press End to move the playhead to the last frame of the source clip.
Chances are that the last sets of peaks represent the three takes of the last voiceover line.
6 Drag the white jog bar to the left until the source playhead is placed before the first
set of peaks. (It’s around 08:04:35:00 in the source timecode field in the upper-right
corner of the source viewer.)
7 Press M to set a marker on the source audio clip. Press M again to open the Markers
dialog. Then, in the Markers dialog, type Line 4. In the Notes field, right-click and
choose Paste or type My name is Sarah Hauser and this is my story. Finally, change
the marker color to yellow. When you are finished, click Done.

Now that you’ve set a marker for the last section of voiceover, you can preview the audio.
To simplify this process, let’s use a new set of shortcuts to quickly scrub through the audio
without using your mouse.
Scrubbing with the JKL Keys

Using the JKL keys allows you to quickly scrub through clips in both the timeline and
preview player. Pressing the L key plays forward, pressing the J key plays backward, and
pressing the K key stops playback. Tapping the L or J keys multiple times will speed up
playback. Holding down L or J will play one frame at a time and stop playing when you
release the key. Holding down K while tapping L or J will play forward or backward one
frame at a time, whereas pressing K together with L or J will play in slow motion. Let’s give
these keys and combinations a try as you preview the Line 4 voiceover takes.
1 Press L to play forward through the first take of Line 4.
2 Press K when you hear the voice of director Stephen Esparaza giving Sarah feedback
after her first take.
3 Press the JKL keys to preview the last two takes. When you are finished, move the
playhead to the beginning of your favorite take. If you aren’t sure which one to choose,
use take 2 at 08:04:43:00.
Marking In and Out Points

In the lower-right corner of the preview player, you’ll see a set of buttons to mark In and
Out points. The keyboard shortcuts for placing these marks are I and O.
1 Click the Mark In button or press I to mark the In point at the beginning of the take.
2 Hold down L to scrub through the take. When you are finished, release the L key.
3 Click the Mark Out button, or press O, to mark an Out point at the end of the take.
With the In and Out points marked, you’re ready to edit that section of the clip to
the timeline.
4 In the timeline, click the timeline ruler above the last yellow marker to move the
playhead to that frame.

5 In the preview player, drag the marked clip’s waveform from the viewer to the playhead
position in the A1 DIALOGUE track.
6 Press the JKL keys to play the clip in the timeline.
You might have immediately noticed that the music is so loud you can’t hear the last line of
voiceover. No worries, you can easily fix that in the Inspector.
Changing Clip Volume

Levels in the Inspector
The Inspector gives you easy access to controls for any selected clip. While you will
use the Inspector in many ways throughout this book, let’s currently focus on the clip
volume controls. Also, this is a good time to streamline the interface and close any panels
or windows that you don’t need at this time.
1 To the left of the interface toolbar, click the Media Pool and Index buttons to hide
those panels.
2 To the right of the interface toolbar, click the Inspector button to show the Inspector.

NOTE From this point, you’ll simply be instructed to show or hide an interface
panel during exercises.
The Inspector indicates that it has nothing to inspect.
3 In the A1 track, select the fourth yellow clip to see the clip’s controls in the Inspector.
The Audio panel in the Inspector includes controls for the selected clip including:
Volume, Pan, Pitch, Speed Change, and a four-band Clip Equalizer. In this exercise,
you’ll use the Clip Volume controls. You can see that the current volume level for the
selected clip is 0.00. This does not mean that the clip volume is actually at 0 decibels
(dB). Instead, the Clip Volume field indicates the amount of volume change (gain) being
applied to the original source level. In this case, it is no change at all.
Changing Clip Volume Levels in the Inspector 25

4 In the A1 track, select the second yellow clip to see that clip’s information in
the Inspector.
According to the Clip Volume field, this clip’s gain level is raised by 10.00 dB.
5 Select the first clip in the A1 track to see that clip’s level (11.70 dB).
You can change the Clip Volume in the Inspector by dragging the Volume slider,
typing a new number in the Volume field, or dragging left or right on the field.
6 Select the fourth clip in the A1 track, and in the Inspector, raise the Clip Volume level
between 10.00 and 12.00. You’ll finesse this level later. Hide the Inspector.
7 Play the fourth clip in the timeline and listen to the new volume level with the music.
The music is still dominant in this section. So then, which is the priority: the music or the
voiceover? Before you decide, let’s learn how to hide all but the dialogue and music tracks,
and use the Zoom sliders to adjust the size of the remaining tracks as needed.
Showing, Hiding, and Zooming

In and Out of Tracks
The more tracks in your timeline, the more control you’ll need over their heights and
visibility. To hide tracks in the timeline, you’ll use the Tracks index, which shares a panel
with the Markers index and Edit index.
You’ll now work within the Tracks index to hide most of the tracks while you focus on
just the dialogue and music tracks. Because you don’t need the viewer for the next few
exercises, let’s hide it as well.

1 In the upper-right corner of the viewer, click the Return button or chooose Workspace >
Fairllight Viewer > Docked to return the viewer to the monitoring panel.
NOTE In future steps, you will simply be instructed to show or hide the viewer.
2 Show the index, and then click the Tracks tab to show the Tracklist.
Here you can see a row for each track. To the far left of the Tracklist, you can see
visibility controls represented by eye icons. You can click these controls off and on to
hide or show a track. Or, you can click and swipe multiple contiguous tracks off and
on at once.
NOTE You can also swipe on or off track controls, including Track Lock, Record
Enable, Solo, and Mute. Additionally, the improved Tracks index lets you
double-click to rename tracks and drag and drop to reorder tracks, right in the
tracks list!
3 In the Tracklist, with your pointer over the visibility control for track A2, drag down over
the visibility controls for tracks A3 through A6 to hide them.
Showing, Hiding, and Zooming In and Out of Tracks 27

Those tracks are no longer visible in the timeline; however, their audio contents will
continue to play normally.
Next, you’ll resize the tracks using the zoom sliders located in the toolbar above
the timeline.
4 Drag the vertical zoom slider to the right to increase the height of the timeline tracks.
5 Drag the horizontal zoom slider to the right to zoom in to the waveform at the
playhead position.
6 Press Shift-Z to fit the timeline clips horizontally in the visible timeline area.
TIP You can use the zoom sliders in the toolbar to zoom in or out of the
timeline vertically or horizontally. Vertical zooming is based on track selection,
whereas horizontal zooming centers on the playhead. Press Shift-Z to toggle
between zoom to fit horizontally and the previous zoom level.
Now that you have a focused view of the dialogue and music tracks, let’s adjust the music
track levels to accommodate the voiceover or vise versa.

Changing Clip Levels in the Timeline
Now we’re back to the question of which is the priority: dialogue or music? This is a good
time to mention the golden rule of audio post-production, also known as the “Dialogue is
King” rule. In short, spoken words such as voiceover, narration, or dialogue take priority
over all other audio tracks. This rule also applies to a music score, when the actors’ lines
take priority; action scenes, when characters’ shouting must be heard over helicopters and
explosions; and even documentary films, when subjects are talking in a noisy location.
If the voiceover track always takes priority, what happens to the music? In this project,
music drives the entire second half of this trailer’s soundtrack. Turning down the entire
music clip to accommodate one dialogue line near the end is not a viable option. The
solution is to reduce, or dip, the music clip’s volume level only during the voiceover clip.
This technique is also called ducking. First, let’s adjust the overall clip level in the timeline,
and then add keyframes to change the track levels as needed.
Each timeline audio clip includes a volume level curve that looks like a white horizontal line
across the upper third of the clip. To adjust the volume level of a timeline clip, you can drag
the clip’s volume level curve up or down.
1 In the Get With Me clip, drag down the clip gain line to reduce the clip’s volume level.
2 Double-click the clip gain line to reset it to its original level.
To bend the clip gain line so that the volume level changes over time, you can
Option‑click (macOS) or Alt-click (Windows) the curve to add keyframes. An Add
(+) tooltip appears near the pointer to indicate that clicking the gain line will add
a keyfame.
Let’s use the voiceover clip on the A1 track as a guide for setting the keyframes.

3 In the timeline’s Get With Me clip, Option-click (macOS) or Alt-click (Windows) the
clip gain line at approximately the first and last frame of the fourth yellow clip in the
dialogue track.
4 Place another keyframe before the first one and after the last so you have a pair
of keyframes on either side of the yellow dialogue clip.
Now you can raise or lower the portion of the music clip that is between the
keyframes, and in the Inspector, see the change in volume level. The Inspector will
show the volume level of the selected clip at the playhead position.

5 Show the Inspector. Move the playhead over the middle of the last dialogue clip.
Drag down on the music clip’s volume level curve at the playhead position. When you
release the mouse button, the level will appear in the Inspector. Dip the volume level to
somewhere between -8.00 and -10.00 in the Clip Volume field.
6 Play that section of the timeline to hear the dipped music.
The dialogue and music now work much better together. If the audio transition sounds
too abrupt, you can increase the space between your pair of keyframes and make the
initial music fade down more gradually. The trick to moving keyframes for timing is to
hold down the Shift key as you drag to constrain the movement to a horizontal axis.
This takes a little practice, so take your time; if you make any unintended level changes,
you can choose Edit > Undo and try again. Shift constrains movement as you drag, so
you first need to start the maneuver, and then hold Shift.

7 Select the keyframe you want to move. When it turns red, drag then hold Shift to
constrain the movement. Continue to Shift-drag the first keyframe to the left to double
the original distance between your initial keyframes. Feel free to increase or decrease
the distance to suit yourself.
8 Play the dipped music section one more time to make sure you are satisfied with
the results.
9 When you are finished, do the following:
— Hide the Inspector.

— Swipe on visibility for all the tracks in the Tracks index.
— Hide the Index.
— Use the vertical zoom slider to fit all the tracks vertically in the timeline.
— Press Shift-Z to fit all the clips horizontally in the timeline.
Well done! You’ve dipped your music clip level to accommodate the voiceover. Next, you’ll
create a new track and use the Sound Library to add another audio clip to the timeline.

Manually Creating a New Track
You can create a single track or multiple tracks simultaneously from within the timeline.
In this exercise, you’ll create a new sound effects track below the A5 WIND track.
1 Right-click the A5 WIND track header, and choose Add Tracks.
In the Add Tracks dialog, you can determine how many tracks you add and where
they are placed.
2 Set the Number of tracks to 1, set Insert Position to Below WIND, and set the Audio
Track Type to Stereo.
3 Click the Add Tracks button.
A new track appears Below the A5 WIND track.
4 Name the new A6 track IMPACT FX.
Now, let’s use the Sound Library to find and audition an effects clip.
NOTE With DaVinci Resolve 18, using the right-click contextual menu from the
track header to Add Track creates the new track directly below the selected track.
Manually Creating a New Track 33

Adding Sound Effects
to the Sound Library
Many editors and audio professionals have vast libraries of project-ready sound effects
and music that are often stored on servers or separated hard drives. You can access your
own sound collections in the Fairlight page within the Sound Library panel.
NOTE This exercise assumes that you have followed along with the “Getting Started”
section of this book and downloaded the SFX Sampler for Fairlight folder and
created a new soundfx database. If not, please return to the “Getting Started”
section of this book and follow the instructions in “Setting Up Your Sound Effects
Database.” Additionally, DaVinci Resolve 18 includes the Fairlight Sound Library,
which you were also instructed to download and install in the “Getting Started”
instructions. You will use those sounds in Lesson 8.
In this exercise, you’ll add the downloaded SFX Sampler for Fairlight folder contents to
your database.
1 In the interface toolbar, click the Sound Library button to show the Sound Library.

2 Click the Database button to the right of the search field to show the Database
pop‑up menu.
3 In the Database dropdown menu, choose soundfx.
Once you have selected a database in the menu, you can add sounds. In this case,
you’ll add the SFX Sampler for Fairlight folder located in R18 Fairlight Part 2.
4 In the upper-right corner of the Sound Library, click the Options menu (three dots)
and choose Add Library or click the Add Library button in the middle of the Sound
Library panel.
5 In the browser, select the SFX Sampler for Fairlight folder and click Open.
You will see a brief progress dialog while the clips are scanned and indexed.
When finished, a dialog indicates that the scan was successful.
6 Click OK.
Your sample sound library is ready to search. Next, you’ll determine where you want
to add a sound effect in the timeline.

Auditioning Sound Effects in the Timeline
One of the great things about working with the Sound Library is that you can access
thousands of sounds in multiple databases and audition them directly in the timeline,
thereby hearing them in the context of the other tracks without committing to their use
until you are sure they work. All you need to do is select a track and move the playhead to
the position where you want the sound to start.
In the following exercise, while watching the viewer, you’ll move the playhead to a specific
timeline position based on the onscreen action. Then, you’ll select the A6 IMPACT FX track
and search for a sound effect to audition. Once you find the right sound effect, you can
commit within the Sound Library without needing to drag the clip into the timeline.
For this example, the clients want you to find an impact sound effect to accentuate the
action when Sarah falls from her board. At the moment, the stinger that you added earlier
is dominating the soundtrack during her fall; so, let’s mute the stinger while you audition
the impact effects.
1 Show the viewer and move it to the empty space in the upper-right corner of
the timeline.
2 Mute the A7 STING track.
3 Play the timeline from the beginning, and stop playback when Sarah falls from the
board at the top of the high wave at approximately 00:00:12:05.
4 Select the A6 IMPACT FX track.
Now, you can find a sound effect to audition in the Sound Library.
5 In the Sound Library search field, type impact.
A list of the impact sounds appears in the results list.

6 Select any of the impact sounds from the list to see its waveform in the Sound Library
preview player.
The process of selecting and previewing sounds in the Sound Library is very similar
to working in the media pool source viewer.
7 In the Sound Library preview player, click the Play button or press the Spacebar to play
the sound effect.
All these impact sound effects are exciting—but don’t fit this trailer.
Let’s locate a specific sound effect for this timeline.
8 In the Sound Library search field, type soft.
Four sounds, including SOFT-HIT, appear in the list.
9 Preview the SOFT-HIT sound.
This sound effect has just the right level of drama and impact for the surf action
without distracting from the overall trailer soundtrack.

10 In the Sound Library, click the Audition button.
The sound effect appears in the timeline ready to play.
11 In the timeline, move the playhead back to the teal marker and play the timeline. Stop
playback when you hear the voiceover.
The sound effect works pretty well and adds one more dramatic element to the
sound design.
12 In the Sound Library, click the Confirm button to retain the sound effect in the timeline.
NOTE Clicking the Cancel button removes the previous sound effect and gives
you the opportunity to audition another audio clip in the same place. You can
also cancel the audition by selecting a different sound in the Sound Library.
13 Hide the Sound Library.
Now that you know how to use the Sound Library, you can audition your own sound
collections in your projects. In Lesson 8, you will work with the Sound Library and the Foley
sound effects that come with Resolve.
Moving and Trimming Clips

to the Timeline Grid
In your timeline, dialogue might be king, but in the real world, your client is all powerful,
followed by the director and the sound designer or supervising sound editor (often the
same person). For this project, the clients like your soundtrack choices, but they want you
to move the soft-hit impact effect to the first frame of Sarah’s face as she reflects on the
fall. Your response, as always, should be something like, “Sure, great idea” or “Of course,

I’ll get right on it.” Then, you make the change and share the results. You can choose your
battles later when something really doesn’t work. In this case, the clients’ change will
be awesome.
To move clips in the timeline, you simply drag or nudge them to a new location. For this
exercise, you’ll move a clip based on the first frame of a video clip onscreen, so you’ll use
the video track in the timeline as well as the viewer as a guide. Additionally, the Fairlight
timeline in DaVinci Resolve 18.1 offers a new grid that you can use for precision editing,
trimming, and aligning clips to seconds, frames, or even subframes.
You’ll find the options to show or hide additional timeline elements, like the video tracks, in the
Timeline View Options menu located in the upper left of the timeline right next to the new
Grid View Options menu. As you might have guessed, the Grid View Options menu is where
you’ll go to customize and show the grid. Let’s start with the Timeline View Options menu.
1 In the Timeline View Options menu, click the video tracks icon. Then, click the timeline
to hide the menu.
The video tracks from the edit page appear at the top of the timeline. You can now use
those individual video clips in the track as a guide when placing your audio clip.

2 Move the playhead to the purple marker in the timeline (00:00:14:06). In the video
track, you’ll see that the playhead is also at the beginning of Sarah’s clip. This is also
the beginning of a fade transition.
3 Zoom in horizontally to the playhead for a better view of the video clips beneath the
purple marker.
Next, you’ll show the grid, customize the settings if necessary, and enable grid
snapping.
4 Click the Grid View Options menu to show the different Grid options.

You can use this menu to customize the grid line visibility, snapping, time scale of
either timecode or tempo, and the resolution. In this exercise, you’ll use the default
1-frame resolution.
5 In the Grid View Options menu, click both of the Edit Grid options to enable “Show
grid” and “Snap to grid.” Set the Time Scale to timecode (clock icon) and the Resolution
to 1 frame. Then, click the timeline to hide the menu.
The grid is now visible in the timeline with vertical gridlines for each frame in the
timecode ruler. Now you can move the clip in the Impact FX track to the new position
and use both the grid lines and video for alignment.
6 Select the A6 track and increase the vertical height until you can clearly see the
waveform in the timeline.

7 Drag the SOFT-HIT clip in the A6 track to the right so the waveform starts at the
playhead position.
8 Press Shift-Z to fit the timeline clips horizontally to the visible timeline area. Zoom
vertically until you see all the tracks.
NOTE Shift-Z is a toggle between “Zoom to fit timeline” and the previous
zoom level.
9 Play the timeline from the teal marker to the second yellow marker to hear how the
sound effect works in its new position. Press Option-L (macOS) or Alt-L (Windows) to
replay that section.
As promised, the effect works even better here and adds to the dramatic flash cuts
that happen next. Did you notice that the end of the sound effect is silent? For that
reason, you might think the effect is longer than it actually is. Let’s take a moment to
trim the tail end of the sound effect.
To trim a timeline audio clip, you can drag an edge of the clip toward the right or left.
While trimming, you’ll see a translucent waveform image of the entire audio file that
you can use as a guide as you trim.

10 Zoom as needed for a clear view of the end of the SOFT-HIT clip. Drag the tail (right
edge) of the clip to the left until it reaches the end of the actual waveform.
Let’s remove the silence from the end of the stinger clip as well.
11 Trim the tail of the stinger clip in the A7 track.
The clients are happy, but, as clients will, they want just one more thing to enhance
the drama of Sarah’s reflection moment. They want you to create silent gaps in the
soundtrack to match the flash cuts on the video track. And, of course, your answer
is “Sure!”
NOTE If you didn’t finish all the steps in this lesson, open the timeline 2 Trailer
FX and Music to catch up.

Selecting and Deleting a
Range in the Timeline
To select and delete a specific range in the timeline, you’ll use the Range mode Range
Selection tool. So far, you’ve been working in the default Pointer mode using the selection
(arrow) tool to select, move, and trim clips in the timeline. To switch to Range mode, press
the R key. (Incidentally, if you haven’t guessed already, the shortcut for the arrow tool in
Pointer mode is A for arrow.)
In this exercise, you’ll find the gaps in the video track and use the Range Selection tool
to select and delete those sections of audio in the timeline. Along the way, you’ll use
additional techniques to zoom and navigate in the timeline along with the grid.
1 Press R, or in the toolbar, click the Range Mode button.
2 Zoom as needed until you can see all the clips and tracks, including the video tracks.
3 Move the playhead to the blue marker at 00:00:15:15.
4 Drag the horizontal zoom slider or press Command-= (equals sign) in macOS or Ctrl-=
(equals sign) in Windows to zoom in to the playhead until you can clearly see the gaps
in the video track. Drag the scroller at the bottom of the timeline as necessary to move
the gaps to the middle of the timeline.

Your goal is to use the Range Selection tool to drag a selection that is the same width
as each gap and includes the teal and blue clips on the A2 through A5 tracks. Luckily,
with the use of grid snapping and the 1-frame grid lines, this selection will practically
draw itself.
TIP When dragging a specific range with the Range Selection tool, drag the
specific amount first—in this case, the gap—and then extend the range in
the other direction to include all the necessary clips. Once you drag a range,
you can use the nudge shortcuts , (comma) and . (period) with the Option-
Command modifier to move the range one frame at a time as needed.
Additionally, you can Shift-drag the edges of a range to trim.
5 Using the Range Selection tool, drag from left to right directly below the gap in the
video track, and then drag down until you include the clip in the A5 WIND track.
The green bar in the ruler above the timeline indicates the In and Out points of the
range. You can also see the range’s In and Out points in the timecode display. The
sections of the selected clips that are within the range brighten. You can now delete
that selected range.

6 Press Delete.
7 Repeat steps 5 and 6 to delete the sound effects beneath the other two gaps.
8 When you’re finished, deselect the current range. Then, press A to return to the
standard selection mode.

9 Press Shift-Z to display all the clips horizontally in the timeline.
10 Play the timeline from the purple marker to hear how your edits work with the
other tracks.
Wow! The gaps in the sound effects tracks sound awesome. Now let’s see what
happens when you add the stinger to the mix.
11 Unmute the A7 STING track and play the timeline from the beginning.
Overall, the soundtrack is really working. However, the stinger is fairly dominant and
possibly distracting before audio gaps and the soft-hit effect. Luckily, audio isn’t an all-or-
nothing medium. You might decide to tame the stinger by lowering the volume level—a
lot. Then again, you might love the stinger and want to keep it as it is. Ultimately, you have
to trust your own ears and creative judgement.
Balancing Track Levels

One of the last steps in completing this soundtrack is to balance the multiple track levels.
You can adjust track levels quickly in the track header or in the mixer. In this exercise, you’ll
first tackle the volume level of the A7 STING track using the volume level field in the track
header. Then, in the mixer, you’ll adjust the other track levels.
1 In the A7 STING track header, locate the volume level field, which currently reads 0.0.
Like the clip level field in the Inspector, the volume level field in the track header
indicates the amount of change applied to the original default track level.
You could try to change the level now while the playhead is stopped. However, if a
track’s level is competing with other tracks, it’s best to adjust the level while listening
to it in the context of the other tracks.
2 Move the playhead to the teal marker and start playback.

3 As you listen to the stinger build along with the other tracks, drag downward on the A7
track volume field to lower the level until it balances with the other tracks. Repeat this
step until you are happy with the level. If you aren’t sure what level to use, try 5.0.
4 Close the viewer. Click the Mixer button to show the mixer.
Track name and

buttons
Track fader
Meters
At a glance, you can see that the Fairlight mixer is loaded with controls, especially at
the top where you’ll find an Effects slot, EQ, Dynamics, and Pan controls. (You will be
working more extensively with each of these later in the book.)
For this lesson, let’s focus on the track faders for balancing the volume levels of the
tracks. Notice that the fader in the A7 channel strip reflects the volume change that
you applied in the track header.
5 In the timeline, select the A1 DIALOGUE track header.
The A1 DIALOGUE channel strip in the mixer brightens (just like the corresponding
A1 track in the timeline) to indicate it is selected.

If you look at the track names in the mixer, you’ll see that their capital letters make
them easy to read. This is why many audio professionals use all capital letters and
short names or initials in audio track names.
You already balanced the levels of the clips in the A1 Dialogue track, so let’s assume
those levels are good. Specific target levels and delivery requirements will come later.
For now, this is your opportunity to use the most powerful audio input and processing
tool known to man—your ears—to balance the levels to your own taste.
6 Start playback from the beginning, close your eyes, and just listen to the timeline until
the “Get with me” song starts.
Did any sounds seem out of place or too loud?
7 In the interface toolbar, click the Meters button to show the monitoring panel
and viewer.
8 Play the timeline again and watch the video while listening to the tracks.
9 Adjust the faders on the channel strips to suit yourself.
10 When you are finished, stop playback and hide the mixer.
11 In the Timeline View Options menu, hide the video tracks. In the Grid View Options,
turn off both of the Edit Grid icons to “Show grid” and “Snap to grid.”
Congratulations! The clients are almost happy. Yes, almost happy. Your clients have
another tiny request. They are wondering if you can add an echo to the second piano note
in the first clip on the MUSIC track so that it enhances the initial music cue. Sure!
Adding a FairlightFX Plug-In to a Clip

DaVinci Resolve includes a full set of audio plug-ins called FairlightFX that can be added
to any clip or track. To become familiar with them, you’ll add the Echo plug-in to the first
clip on the MUSIC track and adjust its parameters in the FX interface or in the Inspector.
Actually, the request is to add the Echo to only the second note of the clip.

First, let’s solo the A8 track and set In and Out points on either side of the first clip to make
playback of that timeline clip easier.
1 Solo the A8 MUSIC track.
2 Move the playhead to the beginning of the first clip and press I to set an In point. Move
the playhead to the end of the clip and press O to set an Out point.
The portion of the timeline within the In and Out points highlights.
3 Zoom horizontally and vertically until you clearly see the waveform in the first music
clip in the A8 MUSIC track.
4 Press Option-/ (forward slash) on MacOS or Alt-/ on Windows to play the marked
section from the In point to the Out point. Listen to the two piano notes in the
marked clip.
Next, you’ll use the Razor tool (scissors icon) to split the clip between piano notes.
5 In the timeline, select the clip containing the piano notes.

6 Using the clip’s waveform as a guide, move the playhead to the end of the first
piano note.
7 In the timeline toolbar, click the Razor tool icon (scissors) to split the selected clip at the
playhead position.
There are now two clips at the beginning of the A8 MUSIC track. The first clip plays the
first piano note; the second clip plays the second note. You’ll add the Echo plug-in to
the second clip.

8 In the Interface toolbar, click the Effects Library button.
The Effects Library shows the FairlightFX at the top, followed by any VST effects or
Audio Unit effects installed on your system.
9 In the FairlightFX list, drag the Echo effect to the second clip in the A8 MUSIC track in
the timeline.
The Echo controls panel opens. Here you can adjust several FX controls. For this
exercise, let’s play the clip with the default Echo settings and use one of the Echo
presets to change the parameters.
10 Press Option-/ (forward slash) in macOS or Alt-/ (forward slash) in Windows to play the
timeline from the In to the Out points.
You can really hear the Echo effect on the clip. Now let’s apply one of the presets.
11 In the upper left of the Echo controls panel, click the Preset menu to see the available
presets. Choose Fast Ping Pong.

12 Play the clip and listen to it with the Fast Ping Pong preset applied.
As you can hear, the Fast Ping Pong preset has a subtler echo effect than the default
preset but adds some nice depth to the sound along with a fast-moving delay back and
forth (ping pong) between the left and right channels.
13 Close the Echo Controls panel.
If you need to see the controls again, you’ll find them in the Inspector.
Using FairlightFX Plug-In

Controls in the Inspector
Once you close the Echo Controls panel, you can access the controls via the Inspector. Here
you’ll find a parameter view of the same controls in the new Effects panel on the Inspector.
1 In the timeline, select the clip, if necessary. Show the Inspector, Effects panel.
Parameter controls for the Echo effect appear at the bottom of the Inspector.
You’ll also see a trash icon to delete the effect and a Custom button to show the
controls window.

2 In the Echo controls in the Inspector, click the Custom button to open the Echo
controls window.
3 Feel free to experiment with the different Echo presets and plug-in controls. When you
are finished, close the Echo controls window.
4 Stop playback, if necessary.
5 Choose Mark > Clear In and Out or press Option-X (macOS) or Alt-X (Windows) to clear
the In and Out points.
6 Unsolo the A8 track. Hide the Effects Library and the Inspector.
7 Play the timeline and listen to the entire soundtrack.
Great job! You not only worked your way through most of the Fairlight interface, but you
also finished the trailer soundtrack and learned some real-world audio techniques.
More Drama Please!

As luck would have it, the clients were happy until they held a preview screening of the
trailer and the audience consensus was that they wanted to feel more inherent danger
during the action sequence. So, you’ll need to apply your new skills to please the client and
save the soundtrack in this self-guided exercise.
Your goal is to really step up the element of danger in the action sequence by adding the
violent winds sound from a tornado effect. Fortunately, that effect is already in the media
pool. All you need to do is create a new track, find the sound effect, preview it, mark the
part you want to use, and add it to the timeline in the same position as the Wind clip.
Don’t forget to name the new track and check the volume levels when you’re done. If you
have any other creative impulses for improving the tracks or changing the mix, go for it
and have fun with it!
Lesson Review
1 In the default layout, which Fairlight panels display with the timeline? Choose all
that apply.
a) Mixer
b) Media pool
c) Index
d) Monitoring panel (meters)

2 True or false? The viewer in the Fairlight page shows only the selected video tracks
in the edit page.
3 Where in the Fairlight page can you go to open an existing timeline? Choose all
that apply.
a) Metadata
b) Media pool
c) Timelines dropdown menu
d) Index
e) Timeline tab
4 How do you separate the viewer from the monitoring panel so that you can use it as
a floating window? Choose all that apply.
a) Double-click the viewer.
b) Option-click (macOS) or Alt-click (Windows) the viewer.
c) Command-click (macOS) or Ctrl-click (Windows) the viewer.
d) Click the Expand button in the viewer.
e) Click the Viewer button below the transport controls.
5 True or false? When zooming horizontally in the timeline with the Zoom slider or
shortcuts, the selected clips (or track) are always centered in the timeline.
6 What happens when you drag a two-channel stereo clip from the media pool to the
empty space in the timeline below the existing tracks?
a) The clip splits into left and right channels and appears in two new mono tracks.
b) The clip appears in a new two-channel stereo track in the timeline.
c) Nothing happens because you can’t drag a clip to the empty space in the timeline
below the existing tracks.
7 Where can you change the volume level of individual timeline clips?
a) On the clip in the timeline
b) Mixer
c) Inspector
d) Preview player
e) Media pool
Lesson Review 55
Answers
1 a or d
2 False
3 b or c
4 d
5 False. Horizontal zooming centers on the playhead, while vertical zooming centers
the selected tracks.
6 b
7 a or c. You can change the volume level of individual timeline clips by using either
the gain line on the clip, or the Clip Volume slider in the Inspector.

Lesson 2
Recording
Voiceover and ADR
Audio post-production often requires Time

recording new audio files to fill out This lesson takes approximately
the soundtrack. These tracks can 40 minutes to complete.
range from scratch voiceover (VO) to Goals

automatic dialogue replacement (ADR)
Setting Up Your Microphone 58
to Foley sound effects or multitrack
music recordings. The number and
type of tracks that you record depend
entirely on your audio interface and Choosing a Location for
New Audio Recordings 66
type of project.
Creating a New Timeline
You can easily record your own tracks for Recording 69
in DaVinci Resolve 18 in the Fairlight Patching a Track for Recording 72
page timeline. All you need to do Recording in the Timeline 77
is set up a microphone, patch the
microphone input to a track, arm the
Recording ADR Cues
track, and start recording.
in the Timeline 92
Recording the Built-In System

Generator 101
Lesson Review 110

In this lesson, you’ll set up and perform three types of audio recordings. First, you’ll
manually record a simple voiceover track for the voice of an intelligent computer. Then,
you’ll use the new ADR tools to set up and record automatic dialogue replacement in
the same scene. Finally, you’ll patch and record Resolve’s built-in tone generator for
sound effects.
NOTE The exercises in this lesson build from the tools and skills that you learned
in the previous lesson. If you skipped ahead to this lesson, you might need to look
back at the previous lesson as a guide for skills already covered.
Setting Up Your Microphone

Before you can start recording, you first need to set up your microphone. If you don’t
have a separate microphone, you can use a built-in microphone in your computer, if
available. When setting up new audio hardware with your system, it’s a good idea to first
close DaVinci Resolve; otherwise, the newly attached hardware might not be recognized.
Once your audio interface and microphone have been connected and recognized by your
computer, they should also be available when you open Resolve.
MORE INFO For more specific information for compatible audio interfaces
including Fairlight, MIDI, and MADI interfaces, a Fairlight Accelerator card, or
additional monitors, please refer to the DaVinci Resolve 18 documentation.
1 Close DaVinci Resolve, if necessary.
2 Attach a microphone to your computer or audio interface.
3 In your computer’s preferences, configure your microphone (or the built-in mic) as the
audio input device.
58 Lesson 2 Recording Voiceover and ADR

For this example, a Rode NT1-A microphone is connected to the computer via a
Scarlett Solo USB audio interface.
Once the microphone is set up, you can use it in Resolve. Next, you’ll open the project that
you will use for the recording exercises.
Preparing the Project

In this exercise, you will restore the Hyperlight Audio Post project that contains the scenes,
timelines, and media that you’ll need to complete Lessons 2 through 14. Then, in the media
pool, go to the Lesson Timelines bin to see the timeline organization for this project, and
open the first timeline.
1 Open DaVinci Resolve.
2 In the Project Manager, right-click and choose Restore Project Archive.
3 Select R18 Fairlight Audio Guide Media > R18 Fairlight Part 3 > Hyperlight Audio Post.dra
and click Open. Then double-click the Hyperlight Audio Post project to open it.
The project opens in the Fairlight page with the 2 Recording VO Start timeline visible.

This is a good time to reset the UI layout and save a working copy of the project so that
you can keep the unaltered original project for later reference.
4 Choose Workspace > Reset UI Layout.
5 Choose File > Save Project As.
6 In the name field, type your initials after the project name.
7 Click Save.
8 In the Timeline View Options menu, select the Video Tracks icon from the Track Display
options, if necessary, to show the video tracks in the timeline.
As you can see in the video track, this timeline comprises numerous video clips since
they were originally edited together for this scene.
9 Show the media pool. In the media pool bin list, select Lesson Timelines > Lesson 02.
10 If necessary, change the media pool to list view.

Here you will see all the timelines for this lesson. Each lesson includes sequential
timelines starting with the lesson number. In this case, the first timeline is 2 Recording
VO Start, which should already be open. You’ll work with this timeline shortly. For now,
let’s open a different timeline that will serve as a reference for the finished scene.
11 Open the timeline 2c Ref Finished Scene.
For subsequent exercises, you’ll simply be instructed to open a specific timeline.
NOTE You can also access any of the lesson timelines for this book in the
Timelines smart bin at the bottom of the media pool bins list, if “Smart bin for
timelines” is enabled in User Settings or in the Timeline dropdown menu. To
see all the timelines in the Timeline dropdown menu, open the UI Settings
panel of the User tab in the DaVinci Resolve Preferences and choose the
Alphabetic option from the Timeline Sort Order dropdown menu.
Now that you’ve restored and saved the project and opened the reference timeline, let’s
take a few minutes to learn more about the voiceover part that you will record.
Previewing the Scene for Context

You are about to embark on a real-world audio post-production journey through several
scenes from the short film Hyperlight, directed by Nguyen-Anh Nguyen. Along the way,
you’ll use professional tools and features in the Fairlight page to perform various audio
post jobs as you turn raw production sound into a fully mixed stereo and 5.1 surround
soundtrack.
Hyperlight is a futuristic science-fiction short film that takes place in space. Two main
characters, Emiliana and Philip, accidentally cross a space–time threshold during
hyperspace travel and end up encountering themselves. Only one version of each person
can survive.
The voiceover you will record is that of the ship’s computer, ADA. Chances are, you’ve
seen a film or television show—such as 2001: A Space Odyssey or Star Trek—that features a
talking computer throughout the ship.
In this exercise, you’ll experience your own time travel as you play through several versions
of this scene to hear the original production sound, a voiceover test, and the voice used in
the final mix.

Let’s start by streamlining the interface.
1 Hide the media pool and mixer, if necessary.
2 Move and resize the viewer to the empty space to the right of the timeline. Hide the
monitoring panel (meters).
This timeline includes an early version of the soundtrack from editorial along with the
final mix.
Track A1 contains the kind of sparse soundtrack that is provided by the Editing
department when a simple dialogue scene is picture locked. You’ll work with these
tracks shortly.
3 Solo track A1 and play the scene from the beginning. During playback, pay close
attention to the sound of the computer’s voice.
4 Un-solo the A1 track and solo the A2 track.
The A2 track contains the professional stereo mix for this section of the scene.
5 Play the scene and listen to the fully developed soundtrack, including the computer’s
voice. The computer dialogue is between the blue timeline markers, so feel free to just
play from marker to marker.
Wow, what a difference a professional sound designer, composer, and re-recording

mixer can make to the soundtrack! You probably noticed that the computer’s voice
sounds a lot like a smart phone’s interactive voice assistant in the first example and
more emotive and human in the final mix.
Now, let’s go back to an earlier version of this timeline and listen to the original
production dialogue recording with the scratch computer voiceover.

6 Open the 2 Recording VO Start timeline. Hide the media pool.
7 Resize and move the viewer to the lower center of the timeline below the timeline clips.
8 Press Shift-Z to horizontally fit the timeline clips in the timeline.
The timeline includes five audio tracks. All the dialogue is in the A1 track. The computer
voice clips are colored lime green.
Tracks A2 and A3 contain alternate versions of the computer voiceover and are
currently muted.
Tracks A4 and A5 contain drone sound effects that are used to temporarily fill the gaps
between dialogue lines instead of using ambient sound and temp music.
NOTE Because this is a simple dialogue scene of two people talking in a room,
it doesn’t require a lot of additional sound effects tracks to see if the edit and
performances are working. In many cases, the Editorial department can cut
and lock the picture with only one dialogue track and some temporary music
or ambient sound to fill the gaps. In this scene, the drone sound effects set
the mood well enough to pass it along to the Sound department for finishing.
Of course, you will transform the soundtrack in subsequent lessons. For now,
you’ll focus on re-recording the computer voice.
9 Move the playhead to the blue marker at 1:00:15:15.
10 Play the first half of the scene from the blue marker and listen to the production
dialogue with the original scratch computer voice.

Clearly, the voice recorded during production was meant as a placeholder to cue the
talent. Now that you’ve heard the original scratch version of the computer voice, let’s
select and disable those clips.
Selecting and Disabling Clips

In the previous lesson, you used the Mute and Solo buttons to control which tracks were
audible during playback. Sometimes, you might need to mute specific clips within a track.
In that case, instead of using the Mute button in the track header, you can disable the clip.
In Resolve, you can disable both video and audio clips with a single keystroke. To do so,
select one or more clips and press D (for disable). This keyboard shortcut works as a toggle
to disable or enable the selected clips. Let’s try it out on the scratch computer voiceover
clips in the A1 track.
1 Move the playhead to the third lime-green clip in the A1 track.
2 Press Command-= (equals sign) in macOS or Ctrl-= (equals sign) in Windows to zoom in
horizontally to the timeline clips.
The timeline zooms horizontally with the playhead in the center of the timeline. The
first five-lime green clips should now be easier to see and select.
3 Select the first lime-green colored clip in the A1 track and press D.
The clip turns gray to indicate that it is disabled. Let’s disable the rest of the
tracks at once.
4 Select the second lime-green clip, and then Command-click (macOS) or Ctrl-click
(Windows) the next three lime-green clips to select them all.
5 Press D to disable the selected clips.

With these scratch production computer dialogue clips disabled, you can selectively
listen to some of the other computer voice options and even record your own.
NOTE You might need to press D twice to disable newly selected clips.
Changing Playback Behavior

DaVinci Resolve 18 includes several playback features that you can use to simplify your
timeline playback. In this exercise, you’ll use the Stop and Go To Last Position feature to
play back a specific part of the timeline based on the starting playback position. You can
enable this feature in the Playback menu or from the transport controls.
1 Move the playhead to 01:00:22:00, which is right before Philip says, “ADA,” for the
first time.
2 In the transport controls, right-click the Stop button and choose Stop and Go To
Last Position.
3 Unmute the A2 track and start playback. Stop playback by pressing the Spacebar
just after ADA says, “Yes.”
When you stop playback, the playhead returns to the starting position (01:00:22:00).
What did you think of the computer voice this time? This version of the voice was
created by an actual computer reading the script lines. Now listen to the A3 track to
hear the final version of the voiceover. Of course, this final version includes some
reverb and other processing effects to make it sound more like a computer voice. You’ll
work more with those effects in a later lesson.

4 Mute track A2 and unmute track A3. Play the first few lines of dialogue again to hear
the final computer voice in context. When you’re finished, stop playback.
5 Mute track A3.
This time, the computer voice was obviously recorded by a human with more subtle
inflection and intuitive responses. Now that you’re familiar with the computer voiceover
part, you’re ready to set up your timeline for recording.
Choosing a Location for

New Audio Recordings
When you record audio files in the Fairlight page, you simultaneously create new clips
in the timeline and media pool, as well as storing new media on your hard disk. Files are
stored in the Capture location on your system, while the corresponding clips will appear
in the selected bin in the media pool. In this exercise, you’ll create a new bin for the
recorded clips and locate where the new files will be stored on your storage disk.
1 Show the media pool.
2 In the Master bin list, right-click the Master bin and choose New Bin.
The new bin appears in the bin list with the name field selected, ready for you to type
in a new name.
3 In the new bin’s name field, type Recordings and press Return/Enter.

You’ve created a bin for the recorded clips in your project, and now you’ll choose
a location to store the new files. For this project, you can use the default capture
settings; however, it’s a good idea to know where the default capture location is and
how to change it. You can specify the location of your recorded audio files in the
Capture and Playback panel of the Project Settings.
4 Choose File > Project Settings or press Shift-9 to open the Project Settings window.
5 In the Project Settings sidebar, click Capture and Playback to show the Capture
and Playback panel.
6 At the top of the Capture settings, ensure that the Capture dropdown menu is set for
“Video and audio.” If necessary, change the Capture dropdown menu from Video to
Video and audio.
7 Below the Capture dropdown menu, find the “Save clips to” field.
This location is where newly recorded files will be stored. The default capture location
is the Users Movies > Capture folder. For the purposes of this project, though, you can
keep the current settings.
If you want to save the recording to a different location, click Browse and choose that
new location now. Keep in mind that the new location will apply to all newly captured
video and audio media.
TIP It’s always a good idea to check the capture location before recording
audio or capturing video files. Also, if you share a workstation and change the
capture location, be sure to either change it back or coordinate with the other
users so that you can all keep track of your media as you go.
Choosing a Location for New Audio Recordings 67

Setting the Audio Metering for Recording
Before closing the Project Settings window, let’s take a quick look at the Fairlight settings
where you can set the Audio Metering to “Pre fader metering on tracks” for recording.
1 In the Project Settings sidebar, click Fairlight to see the Fairlight settings.
2 In the Audio Metering settings, click the “Pre fader metering on tracks” option to select
it, if necessary.
The “Pre fader metering on tracks” option controls whether the position of the faders
affects the meters in the mixer. By default, the “Pre fader metering on tracks” option
is unchecked so the meters display the level of each clip’s signal after whatever fader
adjustments have taken place. This is often referred to as post-fader metering because
the meters in the mixer show the post-fader results of all signal processing and level
changes applied to the clips and track. In this mode, whatever change you apply to a
fader is reflected in the meters. Selecting the “Pre fader metering on tracks” option, on
the other hand, shows the actual levels of each clip in the track, regardless of the fader
position. This includes the track source signal if you’re recording or routing signal from
another track or bus. This is an important distinction because when you are recording,
you usually want to see the levels coming in from your source. Otherwise, a signal could
be too hot (loud), and you might not realize it because the faders have been lowered.
3 Click Save to save and close the Project Settings window.
Next, you’ll locate the text script for the scratch voiceover recording.
What Is a “Scratch” Voiceover?

A “scratch” voiceover is a temporary recording used as a placeholder for editing, timing,
and early approval processes prior to recording (and paying) the voice artist to perform
the final voiceover. Usually, the voiceover script will change several times during post-
production while the edit and soundtrack are refined. In audio post-production, scratch
voiceovers are often recorded for public address announcements, movie trailer voiceovers,
and dialogue involving phone conversations.

Creating a New Timeline
for Recording
When manually recording in the Fairlight page, you have the option to record directly to
a track in the current timeline or create a new timeline specifically for recording. Having
the flexibility of multiple timelines in the same project is an advantage of working with
DaVinci Resolve. Throughout this book, you’ll see examples of using separate timelines
within a project for saving versions, experimenting with sound design, creating original
sound effects, and more. In this case, recording to a new timeline lets you record and
edit as many takes as necessary and bring the resulting compilation back into the master
timeline when it’s done. Another reason for using a separate recording timeline is that it
allows other collaborators in the same project to continue working on dialogue editing
and assembly, while the voiceover is recorded in another room, building, or even another
country via a DaVinci Resolve cloud library and shared multi-user project. You’ll learn more
about collaborative audio workflows in later lessons.
There are many options for creating a new timeline, including using the File menu, right-
click contextual menu, and keyboard shortcut. In this exercise, you’ll use the right-click
option to create the timeline. First, let’s go to the media pool to locate the text clip that will
serve as the voiceover script, and then create a new timeline for recording.
1 In the media pool bin list, click the disclosure arrow to the left of the Hyperlight Audio
Post bin, if necessary, to see its contents, including the Title for Prompt bin.
2 Select the Title for Prompt bin.

3 Choose Show All Clips in the media pool options menu (...), if necessary, to see the Title
clip in the media pool library.
4 Click Title for Prompt in the list and right-click the title clip ADA VO Script and choose >
Create New Timeline Using Selected Clips from the contextual menu.
5 In the Create New Timeline dialog, do the following:
— Type ADA Scratch VO as the Timeline Name.

— Set the No. of Audio Tracks to 1.
— Set the Audio Track Type to “Based on selected media.”

6 Click Create.
The new ADA Scratch VO timeline opens with three tracks showing, including the Text
clip in the V1 track, an empty A1 stereo track, and a B1 stereo bus track.
TIP You can change the track type for new timelines in the Editing panel of the
User Preferences. The default track type for new timelines is stereo.
To simplify the timeline for recording, let’s turn off the automation controls to hide the
bus track.
7 Click the Toggle Automation button, to the right of the transport controls, to turn off
automation and hide bus tracks in the timeline.
A1 is now the only audio track showing in the timeline. Before you can record to a
track, you must first set the input. This is referred to as patching a track.

Patching a Track for Recording
To patch a track’s input, you can choose Fairlight > Patch Input/Output or click the Input
settings in the mixer. Let’s use the latter method for this recording. First, it’s a good idea to
consider whether you want to record in stereo or mono. Stereo files consist of two audio
channels, left and right, while mono tracks have only one channel of audio. In most cases,
the preferred track format for dialogue recordings is mono, especially when you’re working
with voiceover or narration.
For this exercise, you’ll change the A1 track format from Stereo to Mono. Then, you’ll use
the Input settings in the mixer to patch the microphone to the mono track. To see the
current number of channels in a track, you might need to increase the track height.
1 Drag the bottom of the A1 track header downward to increase the height of the track
until you see the text No Clip in the lower left and the 2.0 channel indicator in the
upper right.
The 2.0 channel indicator on the A1 track header shows that the empty track is stereo
with two channels, left and right. You can change a track’s channel format at any time
via the right-click contextual menu.
2 Right-click the A1 track header area and choose Change Track Type To > Mono.

Now, the A1 track header’s channel indicator shows 1.0, which means it is a single-
channel mono track.
NOTE You’ll work more with channel mapping for clips and tracks in Lesson 4,
“Preparing Multichannel Clips for Dialogue Editing.”
3 Name the A1 track Scratch VO.
4 Show the mixer.
Input settings are displayed at the top of each channel strip just below the track
number assignment. Tracks without an assigned input will display No Input.
5 At the top of the A1 channel strip, in the Input pop-up menu, choose Input.
The Patch Input/Output window opens. This window displays the source inputs to the
left and the destination tracks to the right.

6 Select the first channel for your microphone as the source and select the Scratch VO
track as the destination.
NOTE If you were recording with a stereo microphone or recording multiple

microphone sources to multiple tracks, you would patch each track’s audio
input channels accordingly.
7 Click Patch to set your input patch.
The Patch Input/Output window and the A1 channel strip in the mixer update to show
that the microphone channel you selected is patched to the A1 track.
8 Close the Patch Input/Output window.
Your track is created and patched, so now you can arm it for recording. The Arm
button, labeled “R” for Arm for Record, is available in both the track header and the
track’s channel strip in the mixer.
9 In the A1 track header, click the Arm button (R).

The Arm buttons in both the track header and channel strip turn red to indicate that
the track is armed for recording.
NOTE If your hardware supports multitrack recording, you can patch and arm
multiple tracks accordingly.
Now that the track is patched and armed, it’s a good idea to take a moment to check
your monitoring style.
Monitoring the Track Input

DaVinci Resolve 18 offers a variety of user-defined input monitoring styles with which you
can hear the microphone signal before, during, and after you record. In the Fairlight menu,
you have five Input Monitor Style options from which to choose, including Input, Auto,
Record, Mute, and Repro.
The Input style lets you hear only the live signal on input, whereas the Record style limits
you to monitoring the input signal to active recording when the Record button is on. The
Repro style monitors only the audio already recorded to the track; instead of hearing the
live input, you can review what was just recorded during recording.
As you might have guessed, when you choose the Mute style, you’ll hear nothing. If you
think you’d never need to use the Mute style, imagine trying to record a scratch voiceover
in the same room as the speakers/monitors but without using headphones.
Fortunately, the default input monitoring style, Auto, is perfect for this recording exercise
because it lets you hear the live input signal from armed tracks during recording, as well
as the contents of each track during playback.
1 In the Fairlight menu, choose Input Monitor Style > Auto.

2 Speak into the microphone. You should be able to hear the input signal through your
headphones and/or speakers.
TIP If the microphone and monitoring speakers are in the same room, you’ll
need to use headphones to monitor your input during recording. If you don’t
have headphones available, you can mute playback during recording or use the
Mute input monitoring style.
Finally, if you’re using an external microphone and audio input/output interface, you
might need to increase the microphone input level. You can do so in the Path Settings
window in the Input pop-up menu.
3 In the mixer, in the A1 channel strip’s Input pop-up menu, choose Path Settings.
The Path Settings window opens with standard controls for adjusting the input level
of audio signals for each track. Here, you can use the Mic/Instr control to adjust the
Mic/Instrument level for the source patched to the A1 track.
NOTE If you’re using an audio interface to connect your microphone, you

might not see the Mic/Inst controls in the Path Settings window. In that
case, use the controls on your audio interface to adjust input levels and
phantom power.
4 If your microphone input level is low and you’re using an external microphone and
audio interface, you can increase the Record Level.

5 When you’re finished, press Esc (Escape) to close the Path Settings window.
6 Hide the mixer.
MORE INFO You can find detailed information about all the Input Monitoring
styles and Path Settings controls in the DaVinci Resolve 18 Reference Manual,
available in the Help menu.
7 Move the playhead over the beginning of the text clip in the V1 Video 1 track so you
can read the text in the viewer.
You are ready to record.
Recording in the Timeline

You have completed all the necessary steps to prepare your project for recording.
Remember, you’re creating a scratch voiceover track, so don’t worry about the quality
of your microphone or background noise. Before you start recording, it’s a good idea to
practice your lines and double-check that the Recordings bin is still selected.
1 If necessary, in the media pool, select the Recordings bin to designate it as the storage
location for your new recordings.
For the purposes of this voiceover recording session, you’ll need to read through the
lines sequentially, one after another. You’ll separate the different lines and move them
into position in the next lesson. Keep in mind that the final voiceover line comes at the
end of the scene.

2 Practice reading your voiceover lines.
TIP You can edit the text clip right in the Fairlight page Inspector. Just select
the clip in the timeline and use the Title controls in the Video panel.
3 Make sure that the A1 track’s Arm button is on (red).
Recording starts at the playhead position on the armed track.
You’ll find the Record button in the transport controls at the top of the screen.
When the playhead starts moving and drawing a red region within the armed track,
you are recording.

5 In the transport controls, click the Record button. Read the script into the microphone.
When you’re finished, press the Spacebar to stop recording.
TIP You can assign a keyboard shortcut for the Record button in the Keyboard
Customization window.
The new audio clip appears in the A1 Scratch VO track and in the Recordings bin as
a .wav file. Notice that the clip name starts with the track name Scratch VO followed
by the take number 001. Also, the playhead automatically returns to the starting
position because you have the Stop and Go To Last Position option selected in the
transport controls.
6 Play the clip to hear your recorded take.
Don’t worry if your recording was rough. The purpose of this lesson is to give you the
skills to record audio in the Fairlight page, not perfect your talent as a voiceover artist.
That being said, if you work in corporate or commercial video, you know that recording
scratch (rough) voiceover and narration tracks is all part of the job.
Let’s record another take over the first one. Doing so will not overwrite the first
recording; instead, the new take will be saved as a separate layer in the same track.
To keep track of your takes, let’s color code them as you go.

7 Right-click the first take in the A1 track and choose Clip Color > Yellow.
8 Record another take. When you’re finished, stop playback, and change the color of the
second take to orange. Listen to the second recorded take.
If your second take is shorter than the first, you’ll see where the second recording
overlaps the first take in the track.
Now that you’ve recorded several full takes, you can try recording a partial take of just
the fifth phrase, “I cannot explain this discrepancy.”
9 In the Playback menu, choose Stop and Go To Last Position to turn off the
playback mode.
10 Press the JKL keys, using the waveform as a guide, to move the playhead to the
beginning of the fifth phrase.
This time, when you record the third take, vary the line slightly so the computer says
“can’t” instead of “cannot.”

11 Click the Record button and record the entire sentence, “I can’t explain this
discrepancy.” Click the Stop button or press the Spacebar to stop recording.
12 Change the partial take color to apricot.
13 Disarm the A1 track. Notice that the A1 track header shows that it contains three clips.
14 Save your project.
Now that you’ve recorded several takes in the same track, let’s show the audio track
layers so you can see all your takes at once.
NOTE If you want to assign different names to recordings, other than the track
name, you can right-click the track header and choose Set Track Record Name.
Showing Audio Track Layers

Track layers are a powerful way to record and edit multiple clips in a single track. The most
important thing to remember when working with track layers is that you hear only the
uppermost clip at any given time.

You’ll work more extensively with audio track layers in the next lesson. For now, let’s show
the track layers so you can see your separate recorded takes.
NOTE If you didn’t record any takes, feel free to open the 2a Recording VO
Finished timeline and follow along.
1 Hide the media pool and Index. Move the viewer lower in the timeline, if needed, for
more room to see the A1 track.
2 Choose View > Show Audio Track Layers.
Each clip has its own layer, and an empty, clip-sized space appears in the track above
the clips. The height of each clip and layer is based on the track height and the number
of clips in the track.
When starting playback, only the uppermost clip exposed to the playhead is played.
3 Play the A1 track and listen to the stacked takes.
At the moment, you hear only take 2 (orange) and take 3 (apricot).
4 Choose View > Show Audio Track Layers to deselect that option.
You have successfully set up, patched, armed, and recorded a scratch voiceover
track in the Fairlight timeline. In the next lesson, you’ll further explore the power
of the audio track layers to select, play, and edit takes, as well as create crossfades
within a track.
NOTE If you’re using a Fairlight Desktop Console, Fairlight Desktop Audio

Editor, or Fairlight Audio Editor panel in a Fairlight console, you’ll have
additional options for manually recording in the timeline. These options include
Record Here, Record Range, Record Clip, Record Again, Punch In Again, and
Record Head.

What Is ADR?
If a dialogue recording can’t be used because it is damaged, noisy, or unclear, it must
be replaced with audio from other takes or be re-recorded. The process of re-recording
production dialogue is called automated dialogue replacement (ADR), or looping. ADR
sessions usually require the original actor to re-record the dialogue to improve the sound
quality or reflect script changes. ADR sessions are also commonly used for dubbing films
in other languages, recording dialogue for animated films, and performing Foley sound
effects. The term looping refers to the mechanics of recording dialogue replacement that
involves playing, rehearsing, and recording the same dialogue cue over and over again.
NOTE Although most of the lessons in this book follow a real-world workflow,
the following set of ADR exercises is slightly out of order. Dialogue replacement
usually happens at the end of the dialogue editing process, which you’ll encounter
in Lesson 5. However, because this lesson is dedicated to recording, it makes sense
to demonstrate recording dialogue replacement in this context.
Setting Up an ADR Session

DaVinci Resolve 18 includes a full ADR toolset in the Fairlight page. In this exercise,
you’ll open a new timeline for ADR recording and use the ADR Setup panel to customize
your session.
1 Open the 2b ADR Session Start timeline.
This is a longer version of the scene you worked with in the previous lesson. As you
can see, each character’s dialogue clips have been separated to different tracks.
This is part of the dialogue editing process. Also, the A1 ADR track was created for
the replacement dialogue recordings.

2 Play the scene once to familiarize yourself with the content and how it has evolved.
When you’re finished, stop playback, and move the playhead to the beginning of
the timeline.
Now that you’ve listened to the scene, let’s locate the dialogue lines that you will
replace. They are identified with markers.
3 Press Shift-Down Arrow to move the playhead to the first pink marker. Then, zoom in
horizontally so the pairs of pink and yellow timeline markers are near the center of the
ruler and the clips in that section are easy to see.
In a few minutes, you will record replacement dialogue for either Emiliana’s line,
“Identify the person on the medlab,” or Philip’s line, “ADA, how is that possible?” Let’s
play them once and then go to the ADR tools to set up your recording session.
4 Play the timeline from the first pink marker to the last yellow marker.

5 In the interface toolbar, click the ADR button to show the ADR tools. Click the Setup tab
at the top of the ADR tools to show the ADR Setup panel.
The ADR Setup panel is self-explanatory, so let’s just walk through the setup for this
session, starting at the top with the Record and Playback Setup controls.
The Pre Roll and Post Roll controls let you determine how much time you have before
and after a cue is recorded. Think of pre roll as allowing time for a count-in before
recording begins.

6 Set the Pre Roll to 6 Seconds, and the Post Roll to 2 Seconds.
Notice that the Record Source menu is empty. To choose a source, you first need to
choose the Record Track.
7 Choose Record Track > ADR. Then, in the Record Source dropdown menu, choose
your microphone.
The Guide Track is the track with the original dialogue that you will listen to as you
record the replacement. The A1 ADR track is automatically enabled for recording as
indicated by the red (R) Record Enable button.
NOTE Now that the A1 ADR track is armed, you might need to mute the track
to prevent feedback until you’re ready to record.
8 Choose Guide Track > EMILIANA.
9 In the Record File Name field, type ADR Scene 7.
Next, let’s move down to the Character Setup area in the center of the ADR Setup
panel and add a new character.
10 Click the Add New button. In the selected character Name field, type PHILIP. When
you’re finished, press Return/Enter.

When working with professional talent in an ADR session, you’ll find that actors each
have unique personal preferences for working with cues. Some like to hear a series
of beeps before they speak. Some prefer a visual count-in or a colorful streamer that
moves across the onscreen text cue during recording, and no beeps, whereas others
want absolutely no visuals and only a single beep right before they speak. Fortunately,
the Fairlight ADR Setup panel includes a variety of audio and visual cues that you
can mix and match to suit your sessions and your talent. In addition to switching the
different audio and visual cues on or off, you can also double-click the setting name to
reveal the full controls for that element.
11 Click the switch to the left of the following controls to turn them on: Beep to In Point,
Beep at In Point, Count In, Video Streamer, and Smart Timeline, as shown.
12 Double-click setting titles for the Beep to In Point and Beep at In Point settings to show
the controls for those settings.
These Beep settings offer two types of audio cues to help the talent prepare to record
their replacement dialogue lines. If you look closely at the settings for each, you’ll see
that the Beep to In Point is set to emit a 15 dB, 1000 Hz beep three times before the In
Point for the recorded ADR Cue, while the Beep at In Point will emit a single 2000 Hz

beep at -12 dB at the In Point where the recording begins. The slight difference in
frequency and volume level between the two types of beeps gives the actor an easy-
to-follow “one, two, three, go!” during rehearsal and recording.
To utilize the Beep audible cues, you first need to create a track and assign the input
to the Beeps in the built-in Oscillator available via the Test Tones Settings in the
Patch Input/Output window and Fairlight menu. You’ll work more with the Test Tones
Settings later in this lesson. For this exercise, the Test Tones Settings Beeps have
already been assigned to the A9 ADR BEEP track in the timeline.
13 Double-click the Count-In header to reveal the Count-In settings. Then, change the
Count From field to 5. Leave the “to” field set to 0 (zero).
14 Double-click the On Screen Cue Text Style header to reveal the settings.
Here you can change the Font, Size, and other style elements for the onscreen
text cues.
To see a live text preview while you adjust the text controls, you can enable the Preview
button. Let’s try it.
15 Click the Preview button in the lower-left corner of the On Screen Text Style controls to
enable preview.
16 Type This is a live text preview in the Text Sample field.
The sample text appears in the viewer.
17 Change the Font to Arial Black and the Size to 50.
18 Feel free to experiment with other text style changes. When you’re finished, reset the
Size to 50 if necessary and turn off the Preview button.

19 Option-double-click any of the setup headers to hide all the opened Setup
settings panels.
The ADR session is set up. Next, you’ll set up the cues in the List panel.
NOTE You can go back to the ADR Setup panel at any time to modify your
settings while you work.
Manually Creating ADR Cues

You can import an entire ADR cue list or manually create new cues as you go. Each cue
has a unique Cue ID number that can be changed anytime as needed. Cue ID numbers
offer greater flexibility for importing and merging cue lists in collaborative workflows. In
this exercise, you’ll create two new cues right in the timeline. To manually create cues, you
simply mark an In point and Out point for the cue in the timeline and click the New Cue
button in the ADR List panel. You can also add the text and character to the cue. Let’s try it.
1 Click the List tab to show the ADR List panel.
2 Move the playhead to the first pink marker. Press I to set an In point.
3 Press Shift-Down Arrow to move the playhead to the second pink marker. Press O to
set an Out point.

4 In the ADR list panel, click New Cue.
Cue 1 appears in the list. When a cue is selected in this list, you can modify its information
in the cue editing controls above the list. Let’s set the character for the selected cue.
5 Select the cue in the list, if necessary. Then, in the cue editing controls, in the
Character dropdown menu, choose EMILIANA.
The only element missing now is the dialogue.

6 In the dialogue field above the cue list, type Identify the person on the medlab.
The text appears in the dialogue field in the cue list as you type. Now that you have
created one cue, you’re ready to create the next one.
7 In the timeline, use the yellow markers as a guide to mark the In and Out points for the
second cue. You do not need to clear the current In and Out points before marking
new ones.
8 Click New Cue to create Cue 2. Change the character to Philip. Finally, type the dialogue,
ADA, how is that possible?

As with all recordings, you also need to select a bin for them in the media pool;
otherwise, they will appear only in the Master bin.
9 Show the media pool and select the Recordings bin. Then, reopen the ADR panel.
10 Choose Mark > Clear In and Out or press Option-X (macOS) or Alt-X (Windows) to clear
the In and Out points.
Your ADR session is ready for recording.
Recording ADR Cues in the Timeline

Once you’ve set up your ADR session, you can simply go to the ADR Record panel to record.
However, your talent will probably need to rehearse a few times before recording. In that
case, you’ll use the Rehearse button located to the far left of the Record panel controls. In
this exercise, you will open the ADR Record panel and select a cue to record. Then, after
rehearsing the cue, you’ll record three takes.
1 Click the Record tab to go to the ADR Record panel.
2 In the Record panel cue list, select one of the two cues to record.
Notice that the playhead moves to the In point of the selected cue.
3 On the A1 ADR track, if necessary, click the Arm button to enable the track for
recording. Unmute the track if you muted it earlier.

4 Zoom in to the cue in the timeline, as necessary, and resize the viewer so you can
clearly see the talent speaking onscreen. As you resize the viewer, keep in mind that
the only tracks you need to see during recording are A1, A2, and A3.
5 In the Record panel, click the Rehearse button.
You will hear the audible cues in your headphones and see the visual cues in the
viewer during the rehearsal.
Chances are that your first rehearsal was a little rough. No worries, you can rehearse
again. Just remember, when recording replacement dialogue in sync with the picture,
you will need patience and many takes to get it right.
6 Rehearse the cue again, or as many times as you need. Don’t worry about getting it
perfect. When you’re ready to record, move on to the next step.
7 Click the Record button and record the cue.
A newly recorded region, which is the exact length as your cued In and Out points,
appears in the A1 ADR track.
8 In the Record panel, click the Play button to audition the recorded cue.
9 Rate your performance by clicking the stars to the right of the take in the list.
Recording ADR Cues in the Timeline 93

10 Repeat step 7 so that you have at least three takes.
The takes are recorded in different layers in the same track and listed in the Record
panel. You can play back any of the takes by selecting the take in the list and clicking
the Play button on the ADR Record panel.
NOTE The take list will remain active during the current recording session.
Once you close the project, the take list will clear automatically. However, all the
takes will remain in the timeline.
NOTE If you look carefully at the names of the recordings in the list, you’ll see
that they include ADR Scene 7 (the Record File Name that you typed earlier in
the ADR Setup panel) and the take number.
To see the clips for all the takes in your timeline, you need to show the audio
track layers.
11 Choose View > Show Audio Track Layers. Adjust the track zoom as necessary to clearly
see the multiple takes in the A1 track.

All your ADR takes are in the timeline and ready to use in your soundtrack. This
exercise was just an opportunity to see your takes in the track. You’ll work more with
audio track layers in the next lesson.
12 Hide the audio track layers.
13 When you’re finished, select the box in the far-right column to mark the cue as done.
Then, deselect the Arm button on the A1 track.
NOTE If you enjoyed recording ADR and want another go at it, feel free to
practice by recording the other cue or additional takes.
Importing an ADR Cue List

DaVinci Resolve 18.1 includes improvements for importing ADR cue lists. Not only can you
create your own cues in the timeline, but you can also import a comma separated values
(CSV) file containing an ADR cue list and either merge or clear the current list during
import. In this exercise, you’ll import a CSV file with the dialogue cues for the entire scene
and use the new merge feature to combine the incoming list with the existing cues.
1 Hide the viewer.
2 Click the List tab to go to the ADR List panel.
You’ll find the options to import and export cue lists in the ADR panel Options menu
(three dots) located in the upper-right corner of the ADR panel.

3 In the ADR panel Options menu, choose Import Cue List. Navigate to R18 Fairlight
Part 2 > Fairlight additional media > Hyperlight Scene 7 ADR cues.csv and click Open.
The .csv list opens into the ADR Setup window. Here, you can verify that the columns
are in the correct order for ADR recording: Cue ID, In Point, Out Point, Character,
Dialog, and Done.

Notice that cues 9 and 11 are the same as the cues you have already created. You
could clear all existing cues or update the Cue ID on the existing cues to match the
incoming list to preserve them without duplicating them.
4 Click Clear or press Esc to close the ADR Setup panel without importing the list.
5 In the ADR List panel, select Cue 1 and change the Cue ID to 9.
6 Select cue 2 and change the Cue ID to 11.
Now that the cue ID’s match the incoming list, you can merge the cues.
7 In the ADR panel Options menu, choose Import Cue List. Navigate to R18 Fairlight
Part 2 > Fairlight additional media > Hyperlight Scene 7 ADR cues.csv.
NOTE If the column contents do not match the column header in the ADR
Setup dialog, you can use the menu at the top of the column to choose the
correct header. There are also new columns for Cue ID, Done, and Ignore.

8 Click Merge Import.
The ADR cue list is populated with a full set of ADR cues for the entire scene. You can
create, edit, and export CSV files in most spreadsheet programs.
Sorting ADR Cues

Chances are, you will be recording your cues one character at a time, based on the
availability of the talent. To simplify the sessions, you can use the Cue Sort menu at the top
of the ADR panel to choose which cues show in the list. In this exercise, you’ll use the Cue
Sort menu to streamline the list so that it shows only Philip’s cues.
1 In the upper-right corner of the ADR panel, click the Cue Sort menu icon to show the
dropdown menu.
Here you will see the option to Show All Characters, a list of characters, and the option
to Hide Cues Marked as Done.

2 In the Cue Sort menu, click ADA to deselect her cues and hide them from the list.
3 In the Cue Sort menu, click EMILIANA to deselect her cues and hide them from the list.
The list has narrowed to show only Philip’s cues in the list. You can use the Cue Sort
menu to show or hide cues anytime.

You never know when you might need to record some ADR for your own projects. As you
have just seen, DaVinci Resolve 18 makes this process easy to set up and use at any time.
ADR recording techniques also work great for recording Foley sound effects to match
onscreen action.
Revealing the Beep Track Patching

Now that you have first-hand experience with the DaVinci Resolve ADR tools, you probably
recognize the value of the beeps for cueing talent during a session. For the purposes of this
lesson, the beep track was set up for you. However, in the real world, on your own projects,
you’ll need to be able to set up your own beep track. Luckily, this is an easy process, which
can be saved as a preset that you can use on future ADR projects on the same system. In
this exercise, you’ll find the A9 ADR Beep track in the mixer, and then show the Input and
Path Settings to see how to patch the built-in system generator for ADR beeps.
1 Select the A9 ADR BEEP track.
2 Show the mixer.
At the top of the A9 channel strip in the mixer, you can see that the Input is Beeps.
The Beeps input source comes from the built-in System Generator. You’ll patch and
record sounds from the System Generator in the next exercise.
3 Click the A9 Input pop-up and choose > Path Settings.

4 The Path Settings window opens and shows the Record Level set to Thru.
NOTE Patched tracks can be set to either Record (Rec) or Through (Thru). If a
track is set to Thru mode, it has an open input that can be triggered by talkback
or, in this case, the ADR Beeps.
5 Close the Path Settings window.
For future ADR timelines that you create in your own projects, be sure to create a track for
the Beeps and patch it to the System Generator Beeps.
TIP You can save global track settings for tracks, such as the ADR Beeps track, in
the Preset Library via the Fairlight menu. Once saved as a preset, you can easily
apply the global track preset to a track in another timeline or project to instantly
turn it into an ADR Beeps track.
Recording the Built-In

System Generator
Fairlight includes a System Generator that you can use to generate sounds such as white
noise, beeps for ADR audible cues, or tones that you can transform into sound effects. In
this last recording exercise, you will create a new timeline, patch the System Generator, and
record different sounds that you can later use for sound design.

First, let’s create a new timeline and track.
1 Show the media pool, and create a new bin named My Timelines.
This bin is where you can save any new timelines that you create while working
through the various exercises.
2 Press Command-N (macOS) or Ctrl-N (Windows) to create a new timeline.
3 In the Create New Timeline dialog, in the Timeline Name field, type Sound Design FX.
Leave the default settings as they are, and click Create.
A new, empty timeline opens with one stereo audio track.
4 Name the A1 track GEN FX. Also, toggle automation off so you don’t see the bus tracks
in the timeline.
Now that the timeline is created, let’s take a moment to select the Recordings bin in
the media pool. Keep in mind that if you ever forget to select a specific bin for your
recordings and no bin is selected, they will appear in the selected bin or under the
Master bin. You can move them to another bin after you’ve finished recording.

5 In the media pool, select the Recordings bin. Hide the media pool.
You can use the Patch Input/Output window to patch the built-in System Generator to
the track just as you would a microphone or other external audio device. Previously,
you opened the Patch Input/Output panel from the mixer. This time, you’ll do so within
the Fairlight page.
6 Choose Fairlight > Patch Input/Output.
The Source Audio Inputs menu offers numerous options from which to choose, so you
might need to scroll down in the Audio Inputs menu to find the System Generator.
7 Choose Source > System Generator.
The System Generator can generate three types of sound that you can patch and
record. Let’s start with the Noise generator.

8 Click Noise as the System Generator Source. Then, choose Destination > Track
Input. Select both channels of the GEN FX track for the destination because this is a
stereo track.
9 Click Patch and close the Patch Input/Output window.
WARNING! Do not arm the A1 track yet. You just patched a noise generator to
the track, so if you armed the track, you would immediately hear it just as though
it were a live microphone. Let’s first take a moment to find and use the master
playback volume controls.
Controlling the Playback Volume Level

Whether you are recording, building tracks, or mixing your final project, it’s always a good
idea to know how to control your master playback monitoring levels. In the upper-right
corner of the timeline, you’ll find the master playback volume controls. These controls do
not affect the levels of your main output or individual tracks. However, they are incredibly
useful for quickly adjusting the playback levels in your speaker system, computer speaker,
or headphones.
Mute button DIM button
1 Click the DIM button to instantly lower the playback volume by 15 dB.
The playback volume fader turns yellow to indicate that the DIM button is on.

NOTE The ability to quickly lower the playback volume is very useful when
you’re in the middle of a session and someone asks you a question and you
need to answer, or, as in this case, to protect your ears from the incoming noise
generator until you are prepared.
2 Arm the A1 track.
As promised, you can really hear that noise generator through your headphones
or speakers, even with the playback dimmed by 15 dB. So, how loud is the System
Generator source? The System Generator generates sound at -15 dB. This is also the
dialogue target level when you start editing dialogue and mixing.
3 In the playback controls, click the Mute button to mute playback.
You can combine the playback controls to go from DIM to mute and back whenever
necessary.
Changing the Test Tone Generator Settings

Resolve’s built-in System Generator settings are available in the Fairlight menu. In this
exercise, you’ll open the Test Tone Settings for the System Generator and experiment
with some of its controls.
1 Choose Fairlight > Test Tone Settings to open the Test Tone Settings window.
2 Unmute the playback volume controls. Leave the DIM button turned on.
Feel free to mute the playback volume at any time, and vice versa.
In the Noise controls (located in the middle of the Test Tones Settings window), you
can change the noise type from White to Pink.

3 If necessary, lower the Tone Level until it reads -12. Click the Pink button to change
from white noise to pink noise. Click back and forth between the two types of noise to
compare them. When you’re finished, leave the Noise set to Pink.
NOTE Both white and pink noise include all the frequencies that the human
ear can hear. The difference is that white noise has equal energy per frequency,
similar to white light that contains all the wavelengths of the visible spectrum
at equal intensity. Pink noise is filtered white noise that has equal energy per
octave. With pink noise, the intensity decreases as the frequency increases,
which is how humans perceive sound; therefore, it’s easier on the ears.
Now let’s record a bit of that noise.

4 Click the Record button to record about 10 seconds of pink noise. When you’re
finished, click the Stop button or press the Spacebar.
Now let’s record a tone that you can control using the oscillator. To do so, you’ll need
to change the patch input setting. This time, let’s open the Patch Input/Output window
right from the Test Tones Settings window.
5 Click the Options menu (...) in the Test Tones Settings window and choose > Patch
Input/Output.
6 In the Patch Input/Output window, click Noise in the Source controls, and then click the
Un-Patch button to unpatch the Noise generator.

7 In the Source controls, click the Osc button. Then, in the Destination controls, select
both channels of the GEN FX track. When you’re finished, click Patch.
NOTE When you unpatch a track in the Patch Input/Output window, the
corresponding track is automatically disarmed. Likewise, whenever you open
the Patch Input/Output window, you must first select the source or destination
before the option to Patch or Unpatch is available at the bottom of the window.
8 Close the Patch Input/Output window. Then, arm the A1 track.
The default oscillator tone should sound familiar. It is the 1-kHz tone used for 2-pops
and for setting up audio monitor levels.
9 In the Oscillator Settings, drag the Frequency knob to the left to lower the frequency,
and drag to the right to raise the frequency.
10 Click the buttons to the right of the Frequency knob to switch the Oscillator to that
frequency preset.
TIP You can double-click the knobs in the Test Tones Settings to reset them to
the default settings.
11 Disarm the A1 track and save your project.
12 Press Shift-9 to open the Project Settings window. Then, in the Fairlight settings,
uncheck the “Pre fader metering on tracks” option.
Although you might not need to record an oscillator sound every day, it’s useful to know
where it is and how to record it for your projects.
You have successfully executed three different types of recording in the Fairlight page.
In the next lesson, you’ll work with audio track layers.

Practicing More FX
Because your oscillator is patched and handy and the track is set up, let’s record a few
more sounds. In the following list, you’ll see several sounds that you can record using the
oscillator. When you’re finished, be sure to disarm the track and save your project. Also,
as you go, it’s a good idea to create markers over each type of sound that you record in
the timeline so you can easily identify them later. While you’re at it, change the clip colors
as well. If your ears are sensitive to some of the frequencies, you can always record the
oscillator with the timeline playback dimmed or even muted.
Record approximately 10 seconds of each of the following oscillator sounds. Leave at least
1 second between recordings in the track.
— 100 Hz
— 200 Hz
— 440 Hz
— 1000 Hz (or 1 kHz)
— 2000 Hz (or 2 kHz)
— Ascending frequencies from 20 Hz to 10 kHz (by dragging the knob while recording)
— Descending frequencies from 10 kHz to 20 Hz
— White noise
When you’re finished, disarm the track, close the Oscillator Settings window, turn off
the DIM button, and save your project.
NOTE If you’d like to see a finished version of the recorded frequencies, open the
timeline 2e Sound Design FX Recorded.

Lesson Review
1 After connecting a microphone to your computer, what two steps are necessary before
you can record to a specific track?
a) Patch the audio source to the track and select the track.
b) Select the track and Shift-click the Record button.
c) Patch the audio source to the track and arm the track.
d) Select the track and click the Record button in the track header or mixer.
2 What keyboard shortcut can you use to disable or enable a selected clip in
the timeline?
a) Shift-R
b) Shift-D
c) E
d) D
e) Shift-D
3 What happens to a recorded clip in the timeline when you record another take in the
same track?
a) The new take overwrites the previous take.
b) You create a punch-in recording.
c) The new take is recorded in an audio track layer above the previous take.
d) The new take is recorded in an audio track layer below the previous take.
e) The new take temporarily replaces the previous take, but all takes can be recovered
by choosing the Restore Takes option in the right-click menu.
4 Where do you set up an ADR session?

a) In the media pool Preview player
b) In the Setup tab on the ADR panel
c) In the Cue Index tab on the ADR panel
d) In the Sound Library, ADR Cue tab

5 True or false? To record beeps, noise, or tones, you must first open the Test Tones
Settings bin in the media pool.
6 Identify the two types of noise available in the Test Tones Settings window?
(Select two.)
a) White noise
b) Brown noise
c) Pink noise
d) Noise print
e) Ambient noise
7 What file format can you use to import and set up an ADR Cue list?
a) .TXT
b) .XML
c) .CSV
d) .CUE
8 What creates the beeps, noise, and tones that you can generate on the Fairlight page?
a) Velociraptor
b) Noiseinator
c) Noise FX plug-in
d) Oscillator
e) Beep generator
Lesson Review 111

Answers
1 c. To record a connected microphone to a specific track, you must patch the audio
source to the track in the Patch Input/Output window and arm the track.
2 d
3 c
4 b
5 False. To record beeps, noise, and tones, you must first patch the Test Tone Settings as
the audio source in the Patch Input/Output window. The Test Tones Settings window is
in the Fairlight menu.
6 a and c
7 c
8 d

Lesson 3
Working with
Audio Track Layers
Audio track layers are a powerful Time

device for editing multiple takes This lesson takes approximately
together to realize the best 30 minutes to complete.
performance. You can stack multiple Goals

sound effects or music selections
in several layers in the same track,
Streamlining the Fairlight
enabling you to experiment with Interface for Audio Editing 115
alternative versions, and then store
Moving Clips to
those versions in lower layers for later Different Audio Layers 117
access. In this lesson, you’ll work with
audio track layers in two different
timelines. First, you’ll split and edit
Building a Voiceover
together the best takes in the scratch
Composite Track 132
voiceover track from the previous
lesson. Next, you’ll use audio track
Creating Crossfades in
layers to create crossfades between
Audio Track Layers 144
music clips in the same track.
Lesson Review 151
For the first exercise, you’ll use the pre-recorded voiceover (VO) in the Recording VO
Finished timeline.
1 Open DaVinci Resolve 18, if necessary.
2 In the Fairlight page, show the media pool.
3 Open the 2a Recording VO Finished timeline.

Your recording is in the ADA Scratch VO timeline, and you’ll work with it toward the end
of the lesson. For now, you’ll edit a pre-recorded version so that it matches the steps
and screenshots in this book.
Let’s duplicate the timeline to create a version you can use for this lesson.
4 In the Lesson Timelines bin, select the 2a Recording VO Finished timeline, and choose
Edit > Duplicate Timeline or right-click the timeline and choose Duplicate Timeline.
The duplicate timeline is directly below the original in the Lesson Timelines bin.
Now, you can give it a new name.
5 Double-click the duplicate timeline’s name (2a Recording VO Finished copy) and type
3 Audio Layers Editing. Press Return/Enter.
NOTE Another method for duplicating timelines is to use Copy and Paste
available in the Edit menu or by using standard keyboard shortcuts.
114 Lesson 3 Working with Audio Track Layers

Because you will use this duplicate timeline in Lesson 3, let’s move it to the
Lesson 03 bin.
6 Drag the 3 Audio Layers Editing timeline from the Lesson 02 bin to the Lesson 03 bin.
Then, select the Lesson 03 bin to see the timelines for this lesson, including the one
you just added to the bin.
Excellent. The timeline is duplicated and moved to the correct lesson bin. Next, let’s
open the timeline and disable the text clip in the Video 1 track.
7 Double-click the 3 Audio Layers Editing timeline’s icon in the media pool to open
the timeline.
8 If necessary, show the Video Tracks. In the V1 track, select the beige text clip and press
D to disable it. Hide the video tracks again.
The clip looks the same in the timeline, so you’ll need to use the viewer as a guide to
see when the text clip has been disabled.
9 Save the project.
The timeline is open and ready for action. Before you dive into the audio track layers, this
is a good time to streamline the interface for editing.
Streamlining the Fairlight

Interface for Audio Editing
One of the great features of editing audio in the Fairlight page is the large amount of
user-interface real estate dedicated to the timeline. In fact, with only a few clicks, you can
focus your entire screen on your tracks and clips, such as the A1 Scratch VO track. In this
exercise, you’ll hide all the panels that you won’t be working with and resize the A1 track to
maximize your view of the voiceover clips that you will edit.
Streamlining the Fairlight Interface for Audio Editing 115

1 Hide the media pool, mixer and viewer, if necessary.
Next, let’s move the playhead to the middle of the voiceover recording, and zoom in
horizontally several times. Remember that zooming with the View menu or keyboard
shortcuts centers the playhead and zooms horizontally from that position.
2 In the timeline, move the playhead over the second clip. Choose View > Zoom > Zoom
In or press the Zoom In keyboard shortcut several times to make the clips in the A1
track wider and easier to work with.
You can use the Vertical zoom slider to change track height or resize tracks individually
right in the track’s header.
3 Position the mouse pointer over the bottom of the A1 track header and wait until it
becomes a resize arrow. Drag down on the A1 track header to enlarge the A1 track. You
can make the track’s height as tall as you’d like within the timeline window.
4 Choose View > Show Audio Track Layers to see the layers within the A1 track.
Now, you can clearly see the audio track layers to edit the multiple voiceover takes.
NOTE If for any reason the layered clip colors do not match the image shown, feel
free to right-click the clips in each layer and choose a new color.

Moving Clips to
Different Audio Layers
When you’re working with audio track layers, an empty clip-sized space will always be
present at the top of the track so you will have room to drag clips up or down to change
their priority. When you drag a clip to the top layer, the other clips shuffle down in order.
Let’s try it.
1 In the A1 Scratch VO track, drag the yellow clip in the lowest layer upward to the empty
space at the top of the track.
2 Start playback to hear the uppermost clip (yellow) in the A1 track.

This technique is really useful for selecting takes because you can move clips to
different layers during playback.
3 Continue playback and drag the lowest clip (orange) to the top position.
4 Continue playback and drag the short clip in the lowest position (apricot) to the top
position. Stop playback.
Moving Clips to Different Audio Layers 117

As you can see, it’s easy to move clips between layers, even during playback. Next, you’ll
set the navigation options for easy maneuvering between edits, and then divide the clips
into segments and assemble the best performance.
Setting Jump Navigation Options

With DaVinci Resolve 18, you can use the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys as “jump” keys
to jump to the previous or next clip, fade, marker, or transient. This is similar to the jump
functions available on the Fairlight Audio Editor. You can enable or disable the different
navigation options in the Timeline View Options menu. Like all Timeline View Options, the
settings work independently for each timeline. In this exercise, you’ll disable all the jump
options except Clip so that you can use the Up Arrow and Down Arrow only for clip navigation.
1 Show the Timeline View Options menu.
You’ll see the four Navigation Options depicted as icons from left to right,
including Clip, Fade, Marker, and Transient. The default settings have the first three
options enabled.
2 Deselect the Fade and Marker Navigation options and select the Jump to Clip option,
if necessary.
3 Click anywhere in the timeline to hide the Timeline View Options menu.

4 Press the Up and Down Arrow keys a few times to test drive the new streamlined
“jump” navigation to the heads and tails of the clips. When you’re finished, jump the
playhead to the beginning of the stack of clips.
Now that you know how to set up the new Jump to navigation options, you can enable or
disable them as needed while you work.
Aligning and Splitting Audio Clips

One advantage that audio editing has over video editing is that you can cut together the
best phrases, words, or even syllables without the audience being aware of your edits.
Although you’ll work more extensively with precision dialogue editing in Lesson 5, “Editing
Dialogue Tracks,” for now you’ll focus on splitting long voiceover clips into phrases and
selecting the best takes.
In video editing, you use a Blade tool or a Razor keyboard shortcut to place an edit within
a clip. The resulting edit is referred to as a through edit. Because through edits do not lose
frames at the edit point, the video will play straight through as if no edit existed.
When working with audio tracks, the same type of edit is referred to as a split because
you split a single audio clip into multiple audio clips. The more you split the original audio
clip, the more separate audio clips you’ll have with which to create your finished audio
composition, or comp.
Through edit
Split

Because DaVinci Resolve supports professional-level video and audio editing, you’ll find
shortcuts in the Timeline menu to Razor or Split Clips at the playhead position. Just keep
in mind that the results are identical. A handy Razor tool (scissors) is also available right in
the toolbar.
In this exercise, you’ll align the stacked clips and, with one operation, split all the voiceover
clips between phrases.
If you compare the waveforms between the voiceover clips in track A1, you’ll see repeated
patterns in each track, separated by silence (no waveform). Each waveform pattern
indicates words or phrases. Although the waveforms don’t indicate which words they
represent, you can definitely see where and when the spoken phrases start and stop.

At a glance, the first phrase in the orange clip clearly starts earlier than the same phrase
in the yellow clip. Let’s move the orange clip to the right to align the first phrase with the
same phrase in the yellow clip.
Rather than drag the clip into position, this is a great opportunity to use the Nudge
commands available via keyboard shortcuts and in the Trim menu. Unlike manually
dragging, the Nudge commands allow you to precisely move a selected clip one frame
at a time to the left or right by pressing the , (comma) and . (period) keys for single-
frame movement, or the Shift-, (comma) or Shift-. (period) key combinations to nudge
multiple frames.
Let’s use the playhead as a guide to mark the beginning of the first phrase in the
yellow clip and then nudge the orange clip into position.
1 In the first layer in the A1 track, move the playhead to the beginning of the yellow
clip’s waveform.

2 Select the middle clip in the A1 track (orange). Choose Trim > Nudge > Multiframe Right
or press Shift-. (period).
The selected clip moves five frames to the right but still needs to move another
15 frames or so.
3 Press Shift-. (period) three more times to move the clip 15 frames to the right. Then,
using the , (comma) and . (period) keys, nudge the clip one frame left or right to line up
the beginnings of the waveforms.
Remember, the goal in this exercise is to align the different takes for each phrase,
and split them into a layered stack. Then, you’ll be able to choose the best take for
each line of voiceover and move them into position.

The trick to splitting multiple takes in multiple layers at once is to line them up as you
go. This first phrase is aligned. However, you probably noticed that the waveforms for
the other phrases are still out of alignment. No worries. You’ll align these layers one
phrase at a time. After you split the first phrase from the others, you can align the next
phrase, and so on.
Now you can split the clips at the end of the first phrase. To do so, you will move the
playhead to the space after the first phrase, select the clips, and split them using the
Razor tool.
4 Press the JKL keys to play the clips from the beginning, and stop playback after the
phrase, “Emiliana Newton,” at around 01:00:03:05.
5 In the A1 track, select the orange and yellow clips.
6 Click the Razor button or Press Command-B (macOS) or Ctrl-B (Windows) to razor cut
the selected clips at the playhead position.
7 Press the JKL keys to play forward to the end of the next line of dialogue, “Yes.”
8 In the lowest layer, select the yellow clip and nudge it to the right until the second
phrase is roughly aligned with the orange clip. The alignment of each phrase doesn’t
have to be perfect. If they are close, you’ll still be able to split them into stacks.

9 Select the yellow and orange clips and press Command-\ (backslash) in macOS or
Ctrl-\ (backslash) in Windows to split the clips at the playhead position.
The results are the same regardless of the shortcut, razor or split, that you use. From
this point, you can choose whichever method you prefer when splitting audio clips in
the timeline.
TIP If you are simultaneously splitting all the audio clips beneath the playhead,
you can press Command-A (macOS) or Ctrl-A (Windows) to select all the clips on
all the tracks. Doing so will select and split only those clips currently visible in the
timeline. Tracks with their visibility turned off in the index will not be affected.
Splitting Clips with the Range Selection Tool

So far, you have been working in Pointer mode using the familiar Selection tool (arrow
pointer). In this exercise, you’ll switch to Range mode so that you can simultaneously select
and split a range of clips.
The waveforms line up fairly well for the next three phrases, and then they drift out of
alignment for the last phrase. The drift is due to slight timing differences in the voiceover
performance in each take.
In Range mode, you can quickly separate the remaining phrases and align them before
selecting the best takes.

1 Press R or click the Range Mode button to switch the timeline to Range mode.
You’ve already split the clips at the beginning of the third phrase, “Philip Maeda,” so
you needn’t select that phrase. Instead, you’ll use the Range Selection tool to select
the fourth phrase, which also happens to be “Philip Maeda.” After you drag a selection
using the Range Selection tool, you can drag or nudge that selection to a new location.
For the first example, you will drag the selection down slightly to jiggle it into place,
which will also split all clips within the selection at the range In and Out points.
2 Drag the Range Selection tool from just above the orange clip at the beginning of the
fourth phrase to below the yellow clip just after the fourth phrase. Make sure that the
range selection includes the entire phrase on both clips. Then drag down slightly on
the lowest clip in the selection to split the clips at the range In and Out points.

3 Click any empty track space above or below the clips to deselect the current range.
Click the track header to deselect the track.
NOTE If any of your clips moved to different layers, it was because they
were overlapping other clips in the same layer. If that occurs, you can press
Command-Z (macOS) or Ctrl-Z (Windows) to undo the move. The clips will
remain split even after you undo the previous move. If you repeat the undo
shortcut, you will undo the split.
4 Drag a range selection around the last phrase in the orange and yellow clips when
ADA says, “Earth date is March 22, 2103.” Then, press . (period) to nudge the selection
one frame to the right to create the split.

5 Click any empty track space to deselect the current range. Press A to return to
Selection mode and deselect the clips. Deselect the track header.
6 Trim the tail of the last yellow clip so it matches the length of the last orange clip.
7 Trim the head of the first yellow clip to match the length of the first orange clip.
Deselect all the clips.

The clips are split and stacked and ready to swap between layers to piece together a
composite voiceover track.
The clips are split and stacked and ready to swap between layers to piece together a
composite voiceover track.
Instead of building the composite voiceover in this timeline, let’s build it in the primary
timeline for the scene so you can make choices in context with the other dialogue clips and
action onscreen. To move these clips to another timeline you could either copy and paste
the clips or drag one timeline into the other as a nested timeline. For this exercise, let’s try
the second option.
Working with a Nested Timeline

DaVinci Resolve 18 includes new and powerful workflow options for nesting and
decomposing timelines within timelines in the Fairlight page.
Nested audio timelines look and play back just like a clip. The difference is that nested
timelines can be opened and edited, and the results update in the nested version.
Additionally, you can decompose the nested timeline to add tracks and clips as well as
preserve all the bussing, processing effects, and mixing from the nested timeline. You’ll
work more with nested timelines during the mixing lessons later in this book.
In this exercise, you will add the 3 Audio Layers Editing timeline to an empty track in the 3a
Scene for Comp timeline, play the nested timeline, open the nested timeline, edit one of
the clips, and then decompose the nested timeline in place to instantly add all the clips and
layers to the primary timeline.
First, it’s a good idea to rename the 3 Audio Layers Editing timeline based on the contents.
NOTE If you did not complete the previous exercises for the 3 Audio Layers Editing
timeline, feel free to use the timeline 3d VO Backup for Comp to catch up.
1 Hide the audio track layers, If necessary. (Deselect Show Audio Track Layers in the
View menu.)
2 In the media pool, change the name of the 3 Audio Layers Editing timeline
to 3 ADA VO.

3 Open the timeline 3a Scene for Comp.
This timeline contains six audio tracks including the original production dialogue in the
A1 track and an empty A2 Scratch VO track for the nested timeline.
4 Drag the 3 ADA VO timeline from the media pool to the A2 track.
5 In the A2 track, drag the nested 3 ADA VO_1 toward the right until it is beneath the
disabled clips and yellow markers.

Notice that the nested timeline looks like a clip except for the badge in the lower left
corner that indicates it is a nested timeline.
6 Solo the A2 track and play some of the 3 ADA VO clip to hear the contents. When you’re
finished, unsolo the track.
Next, let’s open the 3 ADA VO timeline and edit one of the clips.
7 In the A2 track, right-click the 3 ADA VO clip and choose Find in Media Pool.
The 3 ADA VO timeline is selected in the media pool.
8 In the media pool, open the 3 ADA VO timeline.

This is the same timeline you were working with in the previous exercise, and the
timeline that is currently nested in the 3a Scene for Comp timeline.
9 Expand the A1 track height and select Show Audio Track Layers.
Déjà vu, right? Now let’s trim the second orange clip.
10 Trim the beginning of the second orange clip to match the beginning of the yellow clip
beneath it.
NOTE While trimming clips within audio track layers, the clip you’re working
with always appears in the empty space above the layers to accommodate
your edits.
12 Open the 3a Scene for Comp timeline.

The nested timeline has updated to include the edit you just applied to the 3 ADA VO
timeline. How do you know that it worked? Let’s decompose the nested timeline.

Decomposing a Nested Timeline
You can decompose a nested timeline via the right-click contextual menu in the timeline.
Keep in mind, once you decompose a timeline, there will no longer be a live connection
between the clips and the formerly nested timeline in the media pool. In this case,
decomposing the timeline will achieve the original goal of pasting versions of the edited
voiceover takes and layers from one timeline to another.
1 Right-click the 3 ADA VO clip and choose > Decompose in Place > Preserving
Audio Data.
The Decompose Preserving Audio Data dialog offers three routing options: New
Matching Busses, “Preserve existing paths,” and “Leave unassigned.” These choices
affect how the tracks and busses in the nested timeline are routed to busses in the
master timeline. The New Matching Busses option creates new busses for each bus
that was in the nested timeline. “Preserve existing paths” will route tracks to existing
busses in the master timeline that have the same name and channel format and only
make new busses if they don’t match busses in the master timeline. The last option,
“Leave unassigned,” does exactly what it says and doesn’t route any of the incoming
tracks or busses. Don’t worry if this seems confusing, you’ll work more extensively with
busses in a later lesson.
For this exercise, both timelines contain only one output bus (Bus 1), so you’ll use the
second option to “Preserve existing paths” and seamlessly route the tracks from the
nested Bus 1 to the Bus 1 in the master timeline.

2 In the Decompose Preserving Audio Data dialog, choose “Preserve existing paths”
from the dropdown menu.
3 Click Decompose.
Voila! Just like that, the edited voiceover takes from the nested timeline are in the A2
Scratch VO track and ready to build a comp. Next!
Building a Voiceover
Composite Track
By definition, a composite is made up of several parts, or elements. Composite images
comprise multiple visual layers. Composite audio tracks refer to audio tracks containing
the best takes that have been edited together seamlessly, as in the case of this finished
ADA voiceover track.
In this exercise, you’ll finish building the voiceover composite by moving the clips into
position in the timeline, selecting the best take for each section, and moving it to the

uppermost layer. Once you’re finished moving and selecting takes, you can hide the audio
track layers so that only the finished composite (comp) is visible in the timeline. You already
have the skills to perform this section, so this exercise will guide you through the first two
stacks of clips and then leave you on your own to complete the rest. As you do so, you can
practice using many of the Fairlight page shortcuts and techniques that you have learned
in the previous lessons.
1 Hide the media pool, if necessary.
2 Show the tracks index.
Let’s turn off the visibility for the other audio tracks except for A1 and A2.
3 In the index Tracklist, turn off visibility (eye icon) for tracks A3, A4, A5, and A6. When
you’re finished, only the A1 DIALOG and A2 Scratch VO audio tracks should be visible in
the timeline.

NOTE Notice that the B1 Bus 1 is also showing in the Tracklist. Turning off bus
visibility in the track index hides them in the mixer. With DaVinci Resolve 18,
both tracks and busses are included in the Tracklist, and you can freely drag
both tracks and busses to whatever order you’d like in the Index. Changing
track and bus order in the Index also changes the order in the timeline and
mixer, respectively.
4 Hide the Index. Show the audio track layers.
5 Press Shift-Z to zoom the timeline horizontally to fit all the timeline clips onscreen,
including the clips on hidden tracks.
You should see six yellow markers in the timeline. Each of these represents the
starting position of a corresponding voiceover clip. To keep things simple, you’ll work
from right to left, moving the last phrase to the corresponding marker, and so on.
You’ll want to make sure the snapping control is turned on so that the clips you move
will snap to the marker’s position. When snapping is turned on, the playhead, markers,
and clips snap into alignment as you drag them toward each other. In this case, the
head of the clip you are dragging will snap to the closest marker as you drag. Press N
to toggle snapping on and off.
6 In the toolbar, make sure that the Snapping button (which looks like a magnet) is
turned on (white).
7 Using the Selection tool (arrow), drag a selection around the last stack of voiceover
clips to select them. Then, drag the clips to the right to the last yellow marker.
TIP Dragging audio clips from the area below the waveform and volume line
avoids accidentally changing the clip’s volume levels as you drag.

You can also select and drag stacks of clips without seeing the track layers. This is
useful if you need to move layered clip stacks during normal recording and editing
workflows. The trick to moving a stack without seeing the audio track layers is to select
the track by dragging to it from any nearby empty space in the track. If you just click
the stack and drag, you’ll only select and move the clip on the top layer. Let’s try it.
8 Choose View > Show Audio Track Layers to hide the layers within the A2 track.
9 Click the empty track space to the right of the apricot colored clip, and then drag over
the apricot clip to select all three clips within that stack.
10 Release the mouse. Then drag the selected stack of clips to the fifth yellow marker.

11 Working from right to left, select the next stack of clips, and move them to the last
available yellow marker.
12 Repeat step 5. As you move the clips to the markers, feel free to either drag them or
use the nudge keyboard shortcuts. When you’re finished, deselect all clips.
Next, you’ll choose the best take in the context of the other tracks.
13 Solo the A1 and A2 tracks.
14 Show audio track layers. Resize track height as needed to be able to select or move
each clip in the A2 track.
15 Show the viewer. Resize and place the viewer in the lower-left corner of the timeline
window so it doesn’t cover any of the clips in the A6 track.

16 Play the timeline from the blue marker through the fifth voiceover clip, “I can’t explain
this discrepancy.”
The clips line up fairly well with the production dialogue track. However, the first line,
“Emiliana Newton,” seems to start a little late. Instead of aligning the beginning of the
clips with the yellow marker, you need to align the beginning of the waveforms.
17 Move the playhead to the first yellow marker.
18 Select the first two voiceover clips. Nudge the clips to the left until the waveform starts
at the playhead position (first yellow marker).

19 Play the first group of clips again to see if the timing is better. Nudge the first clips until
you’re happy with the timing of ADA’s response to Philip’s first question.
Now that you have heard the first five voiceover clips in context, and the first stack is in
position, you can focus on the takes one at a time and move the best take in each stack to
the uppermost track layer. To simplify this process, you’ll use the looped playback feature.
NOTE If you didn’t follow all the previous exercises, feel free to open the timeline
3a Audio Layers Comp Finished to catch up.
Using Looped Playback to Select Takes

Earlier, you moved clips to different track layers during playback. In this exercise, you’ll
mark In and Out points in the timeline to determine the range that you’ll play back. Then,
you’ll turn on looped playback to play the range over and over while listening to and
moving the different takes between layers. Let’s start by setting a playback range that
includes Phillip’s first two questions and ADA’s responses.
1 Press the JKL keys to move the playhead just before Phillip asks his first question,
“Identify the person in front of me” (1:00:24:21). Press I to mark an In point.
2 Use JKL to play through the timeline until after the second stack of clips when ADA says
“Yes.” Press O to mark an Out point (01:00:31:00).

3 In the playback controls, click the Loop button, or press Command-/ (slash) in macOS
or Ctrl-/ (slash) in Windows, to turn on looped playback.
4 Choose Playback > Play Around/To > Play In to Out or press Option-/ (slash) in macOS
or Alt-/ (slash) in Windows to start looped playback between the In and Out points.
Keep in mind that you can later adjust the volume levels of the clips and apply effects
to make the voiceover track sound more like a computer. For now, just go with your gut
and your ears and choose a best take for the first two voiceover sections. Don’t worry
if you can’t decide; the other take will still be there in the lower layer, so you can always
change your mind later.
TIP Holding Shift while dragging clips up and down between layers constrains
the vertical alignment. This is helpful when you are quickly auditioning different
takes because you don’t have to worry about accidentally moving the clips out
of sync horizontally.
5 During looped playback, listen to the takes in the uppermost clip (orange) and drag
the lower clips up one at a time (yellow) to audition each of them in context. Continue
moving between the clips until you choose a best take.
You can also set In and Out points in the timeline using the Range tool.

6 Press R to switch to Range mode. Move to the next two stacks of clips. Drag a range
selection that includes the production dialogue in the A1 track and the next two stacks
of clips in the A2 track. Press A to return to Selection mode.
7 Start looped playback and use the Selection tool (press A) to swap the positions of the
takes during playback. When you’ve identified the best take, place it in the uppermost
layer. Nudge the position of the clips, as necessary, to best fit the production dialogue.
8 Repeat step 6 for each of the remaining stacks of takes in the A6 track. Don’t forget the
last stack of clips near the end of the scene.
9 When you have finished, choose Mark > Clear In and Out or press Option-X (macOS)
or Alt-X (Windows).
10 Choose View > Show Audio Track Layers to deselect that view option and hide
the layers.
11 In the Tracks Index, turn on the visibility for the A5 and A6 tracks. Then use the Vertical
slider to resize the height of your tracks.
12 Press Shift-Z to zoom the tracks to fit the current timeline space.

13 Un-solo the A1 and A2 tracks.
Remember, tracks A3 and A4 are still hidden.
14 Play through the timeline once from start to finish to hear the entire scene with the
new voiceover clips in place.
15 Save the project.
In the next lesson, you’ll work more extensively with dialogue editing. First, you’ll use audio
track layers to overlap and crossfade some music clips.

In the next series of exercises, you’ll work with a different scene from Hyperlight. The music
selections that you’ll use are from the actual soundtrack, composed by Mathieu Lafontaine.
You’ll start by opening the timeline and watching the scene to get a feel for the context and
existing music track.
1 Open the 3e Music Crossfade Start timeline.
2 Play the timeline from the beginning and listen to the music in the context of the
scene, a part of the movie’s dramatic opening sequence.

Notice that the current frame in the timecode display does not match the timecode
burn-in in the viewer.

Setting a New Start Timecode
The default start timecode for a timeline is 01:00:00:00, which you can change in the
Editing User Preferences or when creating a timeline in the New Timeline dialog. Once a
timeline contains media, you can change the starting timecode in the media pool as you’ll
do in this exercise. Also, this is a great time to show Resolve’s floating timecode window,
which is available in the Workspace menu.
1 Choose Workspace > Timecode Window to show the floating timecode window.
As you can see, the timecode window shows a larger version of the current playhead
position, also visible in the timecode display. You can resize and move this window
anywhere on the screen. In the viewer, the timecode window burn-in shows a starting
timecode of 01:00:33:20.
NOTE To add a timecode data burn-in to the viewer or to your rendered

output, choose Workspace > Data Burn-In and configure the options
as necessary.
3 Right-click the 3e Music Crossfades Start timeline, and choose Timelines >
Starting Timecode.

You can now enter the new timecode in the Set New Start Timecode dialog. When you
type in the new number, you do not need to add the colons between pairs of numbers
because they are added automatically as you type. Your goal is to type a number that
matches the timecode data burn-in in the viewer: 01:00:33:20.
4 In the Set New Start Timecode dialog, type 01003320. Click OK.
The first frame of media now starts at the new timecode. However, you’ll also see an
empty space in the timeline that indicates the space between the original starting
timecode and the new timecode. To refresh the timeline, you need to close the media
pool or go to another timeline and return.
5 Hide the media pool.
Now the starting timecode matches the window burn-in.
6 Close the timecode window.
Now that the timeline is set, you can commence with creating crossfades between the
music selections on the A5 track.

Creating Crossfades in
Audio Track Layers
You have three ways to transition between music cues in a soundtrack: You can cut from
one piece to another. You can fade one clip out entirely and fade in a new selection. Or, you
can fade one clip out while the other fades in, hence the term crossfade.
In this exercise, you’ll create crossfades between three music clips in the same track to
seamlessly change music during the scene. This time, you’ll work with stereo music clips
that include two audio channels and an empty layer above each channel. Since you will
be working with fades, this is a good time to use the Up and Down Arrow keys to jump to
fades as well as clips.
1 In the Timeline View Options menu, make sure the default Jump to Clip, Jump to Fades,
and Jump to Markers options are enabled.
With all three default Jump to options enabled, you’ll be able to use the Up Arrow and
Down Arrow keys to quickly navigate to the previous and next clip, fade, or marker.
You can clearly see the empty layers above each channel in each track. Tracks A1 and
A2 are mono tracks, tracks A3 and A5 are stereo tracks, and track A4 is a 5.1 surround
sound track with six channels of audio.
3 Drag the Vertical zoom slider all the way to the left to minimize the track heights as
much as possible. Then, drag down the bottom of the A5 track header to increase the
height of that track.

4 Move the viewer below the music clips and horizontally resize the tracks until you can
see all three clips in the A5 track.
5 In the A5 track, play from the beginning of the second music clip (green).
This clip starts with a bit of strings like a stinger and then kicks into a cool tension-
inducing percussion beat. Let’s trim off the bit of that stinger in the green clip. To trim
a clip in audio track layers, you need to drag from the edge of the clip.
TIP It is easier to transition from non-percussive music to percussive music

because you don’t have to match the tempo or key of the clips.
6 Using the waveform as a guide, in the A5 track, drag the lower-left edge of either
green clip channel to the right until the clip starts with the percussive beat.

7 Drag the second music clip (green) to the left, and place it above the first clip (teal). Drag
the upper music clip until it starts at the green timeline marker.
Remember, you’ll hear only the uppermost layer during playback. So, you’ll hear the
teal clip during playback until the playhead reaches the green clip. Then, the sound will
cut to the percussion music in the green clip on the second layer.
8 Play the transition between the first two music clips to hear the abrupt cut from the
clip on the lower layer to the clip on the upper layer.
Sometimes, cuts between music clips work. This transition actually sounds fairly good.
However, it might work even better if you smooth the transition by adding a fade-in to
the upper clip (green).
Let’s add a 5-second fade-in to the upper clip. To measure seconds using the playhead,
you can hold down Shift and press the Left or Right Arrow keys.
9 Move the playhead to the beginning of the upper music clip (green). Press Shift-Right
Arrow five times to move the playhead 5 seconds to the right.
10 Select the upper channel of the green clip to see its fade handle. Then, drag the fade
handle to the playhead.

As you drag the fade handle, a mirror image of the fade appears on the lower clip to
indicate a matching fade-out.
11 Play the transition between the clips to hear the musical crossfade.
It sounds great. Feel free to experiment with changing the length of the fade to hear
the impact of a shorter or longer crossfade.
Now you’ll add the third music clip. This could be placed above the green clip on a new
layer or on the lowest layer. The result will sound the same.
12 Drag the third music clip (blue) to the blue marker position above the other music clips.
Instead of manually dragging the fade handle, you’ll use the Fade In to Playhead
command in the Trim menu.
13 Select the highest music clip (blue) and move the playhead to the end of the green clip.
14 Choose Trim > Fade In to Playhead.

The selected clip fades in to the playhead.
NOTE If a track is selected, it is not necessary to select a clip before applying

the Fade In or Fade Out to Playhead actions. Fades to the playhead will
be applied automatically to the uppermost clip beneath the playhead on
selected tracks.
15 Play the scene from the beginning to hear the scene with additional music clips.
Now, you will move the third clip to the lowest layer and remove the fade. Instead of
a fade-in, you will add a fade-out to the green clip.
16 Drag the third music clip down to the lowest layer. Drag the fade handle on the third
clip to the left to remove the fade. Drag the fade handle at the end of the upper clip
(green) to the left so that it starts at the beginning of the third clip.

17 Play the transition between the last two music clips and listen to the crossfade.
As promised, the results are identical. So, when you apply musical crossfades between
layers in your own projects, keep in mind that you can stack them whichever way you
want to create the musical transitions.
NOTE The audio fade handles include a center control for changing the
fade curve.
18 Choose View > Show Audio Track Layers to hide the layers.
19 Drag the horizontal and vertical zoom sliders to resize your tracks to fit the window.
Press Shift-Z.
You can clearly see the crossfades between music clips in the A5 track. Creating
crossfades between audio track layers is an easy and effective way to make seamless
audio transitions in your soundtrack.
More Audio Layer Editing Please!

It’s your turn to apply the skills that you have learned to the voiceover track that you
recorded in the previous lesson. Earlier in this lesson, you stacked and edited the voiceover
takes that were provided with the book media. Now, you will create a finished voiceover
comp track based on your recording. Once you open the timeline, you can follow along
guided by the steps in this lesson or try it on your own without guidance. Have fun and
take your time. Remember, the more you practice these Fairlight page techniques, the
more proficient you’ll be when working on your own projects.

Here are some loose guidelines to get you started:
— Open the ADA Scratch VO timeline in which you recorded the voiceover takes in the
previous lesson. You’ll find your ADA Scratch VO timeline in the Title for Prompt bin.
— Show audio track layers.
— Color the different takes, if necessary.
— Stack and split the phrases. Nest the timeline in a new mono track in the 3a Scene for
Comp timeline. Then decompose the nest.
— Move the phrases to the timeline markers moving right to left.
— Select the best takes and move them to the upper layer.
— Hide the audio track layers when you are finished.
NOTE DaVinci Resolve 17 introduced a new crossfade functionality where you can
right-click the edit point between two clips on the same track and add a crossfade
from the shortcut menu. Once added, you can select the crossfade and drag to
change the duration or fade shape. You can even select the crossfade and edit it in
the Transition tab of the Inspector. Additionally, DaVinci Resolve 18 includes options
to drag a range between clips and crossfade the selection.

Lesson Review
1 How do you move clips between layers in the same track? (Choose all that apply.)
a) Option-drag (macOS) or Alt-drag (Windows)
b) Press Shift-Up Arrow or Shift-Down Arrow.
c) Drag the clip up or down to a different layer.
d) Press , (comma) and . (period) to move the selected clip up or down to a

different layer.
2 True or false? During playback, the lowest audio track layer will always be audible.
3 How do you split a selected clip at the playhead? (Choose all that apply.)
a) Click the Razor (scissors) tool.
b) Press Command-B (macOS) or Ctrl-B (Windows).
c) Press Command-X (macOS) or Ctrl-X (Windows).
d) Choose Timeline > Cut.
e) Choose Timeline > Razor.
4 True or false? To create a crossfade between overlapping music clips in track layers,
you need to add fades to the upper clip.
5 True or false? Clips on the lower audio track layers are automatically deleted when
you deselect the Show Audio Track Layers option in the View menu.
6 How do you nest a timeline in the Fairlight page?

a) Select a timeline in the media pool and click the Nest button.
b) Drag a timeline into a track of another timeline.
c) Select a group of clips and choose Timeline > Nest.
d) You can’t nest timelines in the Fairlight page.
Lesson Review 151

Answers
1 c. You can drag clips up or down to a different layer, and you can drag or use keyboard
shortcuts to nudge clips left or right in the same layer.
2 False. Only the uppermost clip beneath the playhead is audible in audio track layers.
3 a, b.
4 True. When fading from one layer to another in the same track, it’s important to place
the fade on the uppermost clip so it will be audible.
5 False. Clips in lower track layers remain in the track unless they are manually selected
and deleted.
6 b. Drag a timeline into a track of another timeline.

Lesson 4
Preparing
Multichannel Clips
for Dialogue Editing
Fairlight gives you the flexibility Time
to change clip, track, and bus This lesson takes approximately
channel mapping at any time. This is 20 minutes to complete.
incredibly important when dealing Goals

with multiple microphone sources
and multichannel clips. This chapter
Evaluating Dialogue Tracks
on audio channel mapping and and Audio Channels 155
track types is crucial for properly
Lesson Review 181
setting up your clips and timelines
for successful audio editing. In fact,
about 80% of all the troubleshooting
questions this author receives
regarding audio editing in Resolve
stem from a lack of understanding
about channel mapping. The good
news is that once you step through the
following exercises, you’ll be armed
with the skills needed for all future
projects, whether you’re dealing with
multichannel audio, eliminating an
unwanted channel, or simply isolating
the center channel (dialogue) from a
7.1 surround timeline clip.
NOTE The exercises in this lesson build from the tools and skills that you
learned in the previous lessons. If you skipped ahead to this lesson, you
might need to look back at the previous lessons as a guide for skills and tools
already covered.

In this exercise, you’ll continue working with the scenes from Hyperlight. Let’s start by
opening the first timeline, setting up the viewer, and previewing the scene.
1 Open the 4 Multi-Channel Dialogue timeline.
The timeline opens with three audio tracks.
2 Move and resize the viewer so that it fits in the lower-right third of the timeline.
3 Resize the tracks so you can clearly see the clips in all three tracks.
154 Lesson 4 Preparing Multichannel Clips for Dialogue Editing

NOTE For this example, most of the color correction and visual effects have
been completed. Also, for the purpose of this book, the A2 ADA VO TEST track
contains the temporary ADA voice read by a personal computer, and the clip in
the A3 SFX track is from the finished sound effects stem: the final stereo mix of
the soundtrack’s sound effects, as created by Cult-Nation Studios.
4 Play the scene and listen to the dialogue exchange between the characters Emiliana
and ADA, the computer.
This timeline is an example of what a dialogue editor might receive from the editorial
department as “locked picture.” In other words, the picture edit is not supposed to
change. Meanwhile, the visual effects team, colorists, and audio artists are free to
begin work.
Of course, with DaVinci Resolve 18, all four departments can work on the same project
and timelines without leaving Resolve.
Evaluating Dialogue Tracks

and Audio Channels
The first step in preparing dialogue clips for editing is to evaluate the existing tracks to
determine if the audio clips and tracks have the correct channel mapping and microphone
channels exposed. Basically, you need to look at the tracks and clips to make sure that they
have matching channels. If not, you’ll fix them. Luckily, the Fairlight page displays audio
track information so that you can quickly determine how the synced audio tracks and
channels are mapped in the timeline.
In the following figure, you can see all the available audio channels in each track.
The meters to the right of each track header, as well as the number above the meters,
indicate each track’s audio channel mapping. Additionally, in the Fairlight page, you can
always see the audio channels in the timeline. The Edit page, however, shows only one
channel per track, so editors might inadvertently edit an entire mono channel dialogue
scene without realizing they’re working with a stereo track.

The 1.0 or 2.0 in the upper-right corner of each audio track header indicates the presence
of one mono channel or two audio channels: L (left) and R (right), or stereo. The audio clips
display available channels based on the track settings.
1 Count the number of audio channels visible in the A1 track.
The track header shows “1.0” to indicate the presence of one mono audio channel, and
the clips in the track display only one channel of audio.
2 Count the number of audio channels in the A2 and A3 tracks. Each track should have
two channels.
However, the clips reveal that one of the tracks might be mismatched. Looking closely
at the clips in the A2 and A3 tracks, you’ll see that the A3 track clip occupies both
channels, whereas the A2 track clips appear only to have media in the upper channel,
and the lower channel appears empty, which is an indicator that the clip does not
match the track settings. Although this discrepancy might not seem like a big deal, it
can later become an issue when you are editing, panning, and mixing tracks.

What kind of issue? An empty channel in the track is the same as a silent channel in a
clip, resulting in silence in the corresponding channel during playback. In this example,
there are both visual and audible clues that there is a channel mapping problem.
Let’s listen again to see if you can hear the issue caused by the mismatched formats.
This example will be easiest to hear if you are wearing headphones or listening to
stereo speakers
3 Play the first clip in the A2 track.
Did you notice that ADA’s voice is only coming out of the left speaker?
4 Play the timeline starting with the first clip in the A1 track. Listen to the dialogue
exchange between Emiliana and ADA.
Emiliana’s voice sounds as though it is coming from the middle of the screen, while
ADA’s voice comes only from the left speaker. That’s because Emiliana’s mono track
plays equally out of both speakers, which gives the illusion that it is coming from the
center. ADA’s voice is only on the left channel in a stereo track, so you only hear it in the
left speaker. You’ll work more with track panning in a later lesson. For now, you can fix
the mis-mapped A2 track by simply changing the track format from stereo to mono.
5 Right-click the A2 track header and choose Change Track Type To > Mono.
The visible clips now match the track type in the A2 track as a single channel of audio
in a single channel (mono) track.
There are several options you can use to access independent control of each channel
in the timeline. In the next series of exercises, you’ll explore different options to remap
clips and their constituent channels to suit your needs.
6 Solo the A1 track. Play the last two clips and focus on Emiliana’s dialogue lines, “Plot a
course to put me next to him,” and “Positive. Do it.”
Although both clips sound good, the first one (colored lime green) definitely has a
different sound quality. Perhaps another microphone source channel is embedded in
the clip. In this case, that’s exactly what you’re hearing. In Resolve, a clip can have up to

24 embedded audio channels, so there might be more to this clip than meets the eye
and ear. There’s one way to find out. Let’s compare the clip attributes for both clips.
7 Right-click the last clip in the A1 track and choose Clip Attributes. In the Clip Attributes
Audio pane, click the Source Channel dropdown menu to see the number of audio
channels embedded in the clip.
The Source Channel dropdown menu reveals that the last clip contains only one
channel of audio.
8 Click OK to close the Clip Attributes window.
Now let’s check the lime green clip, which sounded a bit muffled.
9 Right click the second-to-last clip (lime green) in the A1 track and choose Clip
Attributes. Click the Source Channel dropdown menu.

As you can clearly see, the clip format is Mono and Embedded Channel 5 is currently
exposed. The dropdown menu also reveals that the clip contains eight embedded
audio channels.
10 In the Clip Attributes window, click any empty space to close the Source Channel
dropdown menu. Then, click OK to close the window.
There you have it. The clip has quite a few embedded audio channels. In fact,
eight channels seems to be a little excessive for a dialogue clip. Usually, a clip
with eight channels indicates a 7.1 surround sound clip. Chances are that this clip
has multiple audio channels but was simply incorrectly mapped as a 7.1 surround
clip when it was first synced. No worries. This audio channel mystery can easily be
solved and fixed in the media pool.
Identifying Audio Channels

Although final dialogue tracks are usually contained in a single mono audio channel
(one for each character), the original production sound was probably recorded with
multiple microphones. For example, a typical dialogue recording setup would include
a boom microphone and a wireless microphone on each actor. The boom microphone
sound is usually the best quality and therefore will be best for use as the final track.
However, sometimes the wireless microphone sound is preferable, or a combination
of the two independent microphone sounds is needed to optimize dialogue clarity.
When you are editing dialogue, it is most important that you be in control of the recorded
audio channels you want to use. Independent control of the channels starts at the clip
level, even before the clips are edited to the timeline. Fortunately, you can always change a
clip’s mapping for dialogue editing.
In the following exercise, you’ll open the lime green clip in the media pool to see the clip
attributes displayed there. Then, you’ll apply different channel mapping configurations to
the clip to determine which is best for this scene. Finally, you’ll go back to the clip in the
timeline and change the mono channel to the best embedded channel.

1 In the A1 track, right-click the last clip, and choose Find in Media Pool.
The media pool opens with the source clip selected in the list. In the preview player,
you can also see that it has only one audio channel.
2 In the A1 track, right-click the second-to-last clip (lime), and choose Find in Media Pool.

In the media pool preview player, you can see the eight embedded channels of audio
and can also see that the clip really was incorrectly mapped as a 7.1 surround clip when
it has audio only on channels 1, 4, 5, and 6. To better understand channel mapping,
let’s edit this clip into a new timeline.
3 In the media pool Dialogue Channels bin, right-click the C4_02.mov clip and choose
Create New Timeline Using Selected Clips.
4 In the New Timeline dialog, name the timeline Channel Mapping. The other default
settings are fine as they are (especially Audio Track Type > Based on selected media).
Click Create.
The Channel Mapping timeline opens with a single track containing the eight channels
of audio.
5 Click anywhere in the timeline to make it active. Hold down Shift while scrolling up with
your mouse wheel, or in the toolbar, drag the vertical zoom slider to zoom in vertically
to the timeline track.
6 Hold down Option (macOS) or Alt (Windows) while scrolling up with your mouse wheel,
or drag the horizontal zoom slider to zoom in horizontally.

The timeline clip confirms eight channels in a 7.1 surround track with audio waveforms
visible in channels 1, 4, 5, and 6. Each waveform is slightly different, indicating that they
were recorded using different microphones or represent a mix of several microphones
created by the production sound Mixer. The channels with larger waveforms indicate a
louder, more focused microphone recording of that person’s dialogue.
To evaluate and balance the levels of the dialogue tracks, you need to mute, solo,
delete, raise, or lower the levels of each audio channel. However, to exert that level of
control, you must map individual channels to separate tracks in the timeline. This is not
possible for multichannel tracks, as you will see in the next step.
7 Move your mouse pointer over the white volume overlay on the upper channel of the
clip. When the pointer changes to an up/down arrow, drag the volume overlay up to
raise the volume of that channel of the clip.
Notice that any change you make to the volume overlay on the upper channel also
applies to all other channels in the clip. So, that method clearly will not work for
dialogue editing because it doesn’t allow you to adjust each channel independently.
8 Double-click the volume overlay to reset it or press Command-Z (macOS) or Ctrl-Z

(Windows) to undo the changes to the volume overlay.
9 Click the Toggle Automation button to turn off automation in the timeline.
Converting Multichannel
Tracks to a Linked Group
With DaVinci Resolve 18, you can quickly convert any multichannel track to linked mono
tracks via the right-click shortcut menu. Once converted, you’ll get linked mono clips
in separate mono tracks that are linked as a group. The clips are linked to each other
to maintain sync. This is especially handy when editing or moving them in the timeline.

Additionally, the tracks containing the mono clips are linked as a group with a single
fader in the mixer for easy control and continued multichannel playback. You can keep
both clips and tracks linked as a group or unlink them as needed to achieve different
results. Let’s try it.
1 Reduce the Vertical height of the A1 track so there’s plenty of room in the timeline for
eight tracks.
2 Show the mixer. Hide the media pool.
In the mixer, you’ll see the eight-channel A1 Audio 1 track and the B1 Bus 1 output.
3 Right-click the A1 Audio 1 track header and choose Convert to Linked Group.

The timeline now includes eight tracks containing eight linked mono clips, while the
mixer still has only one eight-channel track.
Linked clips act as a single clip for editing, trimming, or moving in the timeline.
Selecting one linked clip selects them all. Plus, you can always recognize linked clips at
a glance because they show a Link badge in the lower-left corner of each clip.
One exception to the linked clips all-or-nothing restraints is that you can toggle off the
Linked Selection button to temporarily override the linked status of all timeline clips. If
Linked Selection is off, you can adjust the clip levels for the individual tracks.
4 Click the Linked Selection button (links connected) or press Shift-Command-L (Mac) or
Shift-Control-L (Windows) to turn off linked selection.
5 In the A1 track, drag the volume curve on the clip upward to increase the clip’s level to
match the approximate waveform size as the clip in the A4 track.
6 Toggle on Linked Selection.
NOTE It’s a good idea to keep Linked Selection turned on unless you have a
reason to turn it off so that you don’t accidentally move linked clips out of sync
while you work. You can also unlink clips via the right-click contextual menu.
You’ll use that technique later in this lesson.
The temporarily unlinked clips are useful for making quick level changes to the individual
mono clips. However, what if you want to solo or mute some of the tracks to evaluate
them individually?

Unlinking Track Groups
All the tracks in a linked group are controlled by a single channel strip in the mixer. You can
link or unlink mono tracks in the Link Group window available in the Fairlight menu.
In this exercise, you’ll use the Link Group window to unlink the grouped tracks.
1 Choose Fairlight > Link Group to open the Link Group window.
The Link Group window shows all the tracks in the timeline. In this case, there are
eight mono tracks. The white bar connecting each of the track icons indicates that they
are linked.
2 Select the linked track icons and click the Unlink button.

3 Close the Link Group window.
There are eight independent mono tracks in the timeline and eight corresponding
mono tracks in the mixer.
You can now freely solo or mute the tracks to evaluate their sound independently.
4 Solo the A1 track and listen to some of the dialogue in the track.
Wait? Why is the sound coming only from the left speaker again? How is this possible
if it is a mono clip in a mono track? The answer is simple: panning. When you convert
a multichannel clip to a linked group, it maintains the original panning for the original
multichannel track. This is great when you are mixing and finishing your soundtrack.
At the moment, however, you want to simply reset all the panning to match the current
track type, which is mono.
No problem. As you’ll discover through the exercises in this chapter, both tracks and
clips have attributes that can be changed. In this case, you’ll select all the tracks and
remove the panning attributes.
5 Select the A1 track header and swipe down to the A8 track to select all the tracks.

6 Right-click any track header and choose Remove Attributes. Then, in the Remove
Attributes dialog, select the Pan option and click Apply.
7 Play some of the dialogue in the A1 track. This time, you should hear the mono
dialogue in both speakers, and it should sound like it is coming from the center of
the screen.
You’ll work more with track panning and linked groups in the mixing sections of this
book. For now, the important things to understand are that clips should match the
track format, and the default panning for mono tracks is to the center.

Unlinking Clips
You have successfully converted a multichannel track into eight linked tracks and unlinked
the tracks. Another consideration is what to do about the four clips that don’t contain any
audio. At the moment, the clips are still linked, so you can’t edit or delete any of the silent
clips. When you want to unlink clips, you have two options: temporarily unlink them with
the Linked Selection button in the Timeline toolbar or select and unlink via the right-click
menu. The big difference between these unlinking methods is that the Liinked Selection
button affects all the linked clips in the timeline, while the right-click method affects only
the selected clips. In this example, you’ll use the later method to unlink the clips.
1 Un-solo the A1 track.
2 Try to select one of the silent clips (no waveform) on the A2, A3, A7, or A8 tracks.
As expected, you can’t select them independently as long as they are linked.
3 Right-click the linked clips and choose Link Clips to deselect that option.
The clips are now completely independent and can be selected, edited, moved or
deleted. Also, there is no longer a Link badge in the lower-left corner of each clip.

NOTE The Linked Selection button in the Timeline is useful for quickly
unlinking clips for a specific editing maneuver. This is also handy if you have
synced video and want to trim the audio tracks without also trimming the
video. Be aware that turning off the Link button in the Timeline toolbar
temporarily turns off all track linking within the timeline.
4 Select the clip in the A2 track and press Delete.
5 Select and delete the clips in the A3, A7, and A8 tracks.
Clearly, you have full control of all the remaining clips. Let’s narrow the timeline further
to just the A1 track.
6 Select and delete the clips in the A4, A5, and A6 tracks.
7 Right-click any track header and choose Delete Empty Tracks.
There you have it. You converted a multichannel track into a linked group, and then
unlinked the clips and tracks for control to delete unwanted elements. This might not
be the most efficient way to narrow down a clip to one mono channel, but it makes for
an interesting journey with infinite channel mapping possibilities along the way. Let’s
take this example full circle and change the A1 track and mono clip back to the original
multichannel formats.

8 Right-click the A1 track header and choose Change Track Type To > 7.1 > 7.1.
As expected, you’ve changed the track format to eight channels, but the clip is still a
single channel mono clip.

9 Right-click the clip in the A1 track and choose Clip Attributes.
10 In the Clip Attributes dialog, change the Format dropdown menu from Mono to 7.1.
Click OK.
11 Click any empty space in the timeline to deselect the clip.
12 Zoom vertically until you can clearly see the channels within the A1 track.
Voila! In just a few clicks you returned the mono clip and track to their full eight‑channel
format. This concludes your first epic multichannel clip adventure, there and
back again.

Remapping Audio Channels in the Timeline
You can change a track’s channel configuration to match any type of audio clip, even those
that don’t fit standard multichannel formats like stereo and 5.1 surround. Resolve has a
unique and flexible format called adaptive tracks that can accommodate up to 24 audio
channels. In this exercise, you’ll change the audio clip from an eight-channel 7.1 surround
sound clip to a four-channel adaptive clip, and expose the four channels containing
waveforms. Then, you’ll go one step further and change both the timeline clip and
track to mono.
1 In the A1 track, double-click the clip to open Clip Attributes. Click the Audio tab to see
the clip’s channel attributes. In the Clip Attributes dialog, set Format to Adaptive 4; and
set the four Source Channel dropdown menus to Embedded Channel 1, Embedded
Channel 5, Embedded Channel 4, and Embedded Channel 6.

Set the Format to Adaptive 4.
Set the four source channels to 1, 4, 5, and 6.
2 Click OK.
The four-channel adaptive clip is visible in the A1 track. However, because the track
is still an eight-channel 7.1 surround track, the lower four channels are empty.
3 Right-click the A1 track header and choose Change Track Type To > Adaptive > 4.
You finally have a four-channel adaptive clip in a matching track.
Now you can see and hear all the sources at once while editing. That’s ideal for the
editor or assistant editor who is assembling selects (select takes, or best takes) and
cutting together a scene.

4 Press Shift-4 to show the Edit page.
In the Edit page timeline, notice that the clip shows only one audio channel, which
is easy for the editor to work with, whereas the Fairlight page always displays all the
audio channels for each track.
TIP In the Edit page, you can display individual channels for a clip by right-
clicking any clip and choosing Display Individual Audio Channels. Also, to
display audio waveforms in the Edit page, click the waveforms icon in the
timeline Options menu.
5 Press Shift-7 to show the Fairlight page.
6 On any of the audio channels, drag the volume overlay up or down. Double-click the
volume overlay to reset it.
As a dialogue editor, you still need to gain independent control of the separate channels
to narrow down your choice to the best-sounding channel. Luckily, you have plenty of
options to do so.
7 Double-click the clip and click the Audio tab. In the Clip Attributes dialog, change
Format to Mono. In the Source Channel dropdown menu, choose a channel: 1,
4, 5, or 6.

8 Right-click the A1 track header and choose Change Track Type To > Mono. Click OK.
Alas, you have successfully changed the incorrectly mapped 7.1 clip into a mono clip
in a mono track. You have experienced firsthand Fairlight’s flexibility for transforming
clips and tracks as much as needed. Of course, the looming question remains: How
do you know which of the four embedded audio channels to use in the dialogue track?
Sure, you could go back to the mono clip’s attributes and systematically audition each
mono channel, but it’s much easier to evaluate and compare audio channels when you
can hear them together and solo or mute them on-the-fly for comparison. To do so,
let’s return to the original source clip and modify the source clip’s attributes for testing
those embedded audio channels.
Remapping Source Clips in the Media Pool

In this final remapping exercise, you’ll return to the media pool to change the channel
configuration of the source clip. Then, you can edit the revised clip to the timeline and
evaluate the individual channels. When you’re finished doing so, you’ll have the skills
needed to properly map, evaluate, and transform your clips and tracks in your own projects.
1 In the A1 track, right-click the clip and choose Find in Media Pool.
2 In the media pool, right-click the selected C4_02.mov clip and choose Clip Attributes.
And now for the fun part. You can use the Format and Tracks settings near the top of
the window to set up and add any channel configuration or combination of channels
that you’d like.

For this example, let’s go a little crazy and keep the original 7.1 format with eight
channels in one track, and add an Adaptive 4 track along with four separate mono
tracks, each with a different channel.
3 In the Clip Attributes settings, set Format to Adaptive 4. Keep the default Tracks setting
as 1 and click Add.
The Adaptive 4 audio track is added to the clip’s attributes.
4 Change the Embedded Channel settings in the adaptive track to Embedded Channel 1,
Embedded Channel 4, Embedded Channel 5, and Embedded Channel 6.
Now let’s add another channel mapping configuration to the same clip.

5 In the Clip Attributes settings, set Format to Mono. In the Tracks field, type 4. Click
Add. Assign each of the embedded mono channels to a different channel: 1, 4, 5,
and 6. Click OK.
You now see all the added audio channels in the preview players. Let’s add the revised
clip to the timeline. Remember, in DaVinci Resolve 18, the Fairlight page automatically
creates tracks to match the source clip’s channel mapping.

6 Drag the Vertical slider to the left to reduce the height of the existing timeline track.
Move the playhead to the beginning of the timeline.
7 Drag the C4_02.mov clip from the media pool to the empty space in the timeline.
Exactly as expected, the new audio clip includes a 7.1 track, an Adaptive 4 channel track,
and four independent mono tracks, each with a different audio channel. Chances are,
you’ll never need to make an audio clip with this exact configuration, but now that you
have, you can confidently create any audio channel mapping you need for your projects.
Let’s narrow down the clip to just the last four mono tracks.
8 Right-click the A1 track header and choose Delete Track.
9 Repeat step 8 to delete the 7.1 track and the Adaptive 4 channel tracks.
Finally, you can listen to each mono audio channel to evaluate the various microphone
sources and select your favorite source to use for this scene. Along the way, you can use
some of the skills that you’ve learned in the previous lessons to simplify the process.
10 Zoom in on the tracks vertically to clearly see the contents of each mono track.
Next, you’ll mark a playback region around Emiliana’s line, “Plot a course to put me
next to him.” Once marked, you can loop playback around that line while you listen to
the separate tracks.

11 Mark an In point (press I) at 01:00:07:00 and an Out point (press O) at 01:00:08:18.
Turn on Looped Playback and press Option-/ (slash) in macOS or Alt-/ (slash) in
Windows to start looped playback. Swipe the Mute buttons on for all four tracks and
then systematically un-mute one track at a time. Or, you can click the Solo buttons, as
necessary. Feel free to drag the volume overlay on any of the mono clips to increase or
decrease the volume level.
12 Delete all but your favorite mono track. If you aren’t sure which one to choose, keep
the A1 track.
The audio in track A1, formerly channel 1 in the 7.1 clip, sounds like a mix of the
channels on A2 and A4 that was created on the set by the production sound Mixer.
NOTE It’s okay if you can’t hear much difference between the channels. Training
your ears to hear subtle audio differences is similar to colorists training their eyes
to recognize subtle differences in shadows and flesh tones. You probably were able
to eliminate the sound on A3 because it sounds more muffled than the others. That
also happens to be the audio channel in the edited scene.

Deleting Unwanted Source Audio Tracks
In this exercise, you’ll delete the 7.1 and Adaptive 4 audio tracks from the source clip.
1 In the media pool, right-click the C4_02.mov clip and choose Clip Attributes.
2 In the Clip Attributes window, hover the pointer on the far right side of the 7.1 track
area until a trash can icon appears. Click the trash can icon to delete that channel
configuration from the source clip.
3 Delete the Adaptive 4 channel track. Click OK to close the Clip Attributes.
The clip now comprises four mono tracks, each containing a different embedded
audio channel. The original eight embedded channels are still part of the clip’s media
and can be accessed through the source Clip Attributes window at any time.
Changing a Clip’s Source

Channel in the Timeline
Now you can bring this example full circle by opening the original edited timeline and
changing the mono channel exposed in the lime timeline clip to a different mono channel.
1 Open the 4 Multi-Channel Dialogue timeline.
2 Hide the media pool and mixer.
3 Right-click the second-to-last clip (lime) and choose Clip Attributes.
4 In the Source Channel dropdown menu, choose Embedded Channel 1 or your favorite
source channel. Click OK.
You not only learned the secrets of Resolve’s flexible audio channel settings but also
evaluated the channels in a timeline clip and changed the clip’s mono channel accordingly.

Lesson Review
1 True or false? Changing a track from a multichannel format to a mono format
permanently deletes any unexposed channels in the clip.
2 Which right-click menu item must you use in the timeline or the media pool to change
a clip’s channel mapping?
a) Clip Channels
b) Clip Attributes
c) Clip to Track Ratio
d) Dynamic Range
3 By default, how many mixer channel faders control a 7.1 (eight-channel) linked group?
a) 1
b) As many as you as you want.
c) 8
d) None, you can’t control a linked group in the mixer.
4 How do you unlink clips? (Choose all that apply.)

a) Right-click the Link badge on the clip.
b) Deselect the Link button in the Timeline toolbar.
c) Select the clips and choose Link Clips from the right-click menu.
d) You can’t unlink clips; you can only unlink tracks.
Lesson Review 181

Answers
1 False. Changing a track’s format never deletes the unexposed channels of the
timeline clips.
2 b
3 a. Linked track groups are always controlled by a single fader.
4 b, c

Lesson 5
Editing
Dialogue Tracks
Welcome to dialogue editing, in which Time

every word from every character This lesson takes approximately
counts. In this lesson, you will assume 40 minutes to complete.
the role of a dialogue editor. As such, Goals

you will follow a real-world workflow
What Does the
to transform production dialogue into Dialogue Editor Do? 184
effective dialogue tracks. Spending
Performing Checkerboard
extra time on the spoken words Editing on Dialogue Tracks 184
is essential to creating a polished Cleaning Up a Checkerboard Edit 191
soundtrack, regardless of the type of
project, budget, or size of your crew.
Applying Auto-Leveling
Along the way, you’ll also learn some
to Balance Clips 220
effective keyboard shortcuts for editing
Lesson Review 227
and moving clips between tracks.
NOTE The exercises in this lesson

build from the tools and skills
that you learned in the previous
lessons. If you skipped ahead to
this lesson, you might need to
look back at the previous lessons
as a guide for skills and tools
already covered.
What Does the Dialogue Editor Do?
As the title suggests, dialogue editors are responsible for all of the spoken words in the
soundtrack, including dialogue, narration, and voiceover. In many cases, dialogue editors
are also responsible for recording automated dialogue replacement (ADR).
However, in addition to dialogue, the dialogue editor is also responsible for all the
production sound recorded during the shoot. When the picture editor is finished with a
cut, they pass it to the Sound department where the dialogue editors organize the sounds
from the set into appropriate tracks. They also remove unwanted “production” sounds
such as camera noise, buzzing lights, and squeaky dolly wheels. The dialogue editor also
ensures that every syllable of dialogue is clear and present, even if it requires wading
through outtakes to find a better-sounding take. They may also swap the sound in a wide
shot with audio from clean close-up takes to improve clarity and presence.
The dialogue editor’s “big picture” goal is to improve the clarity and consistency of each
word within the context of a scene, as well as to create a seamless dialogue experience.
So, in addition to cleaning up and improving spoken words, they also fill in and smooth the
gaps between lines to eliminate any silence or jarring changes in ambience between cuts
that could distract from the dialogue-driven performances.
Performing Checkerboard
Editing on Dialogue Tracks
Once a scene is edited, and the best audio channels are chosen in the timeline, it’s time to
split and move all the dialogue clips to separate tracks for each character. This process is
referred to as checkerboard editing because of the way the tracks look when the process
is completed.
The primary reason for separating out the dialogue for each character is so that each
character has an individual track when you’re adjusting volume, equalization, and dynamics
processing, and creating the final mix. This editing technique is essential for all projects,
whether they are scripted narrative, unscripted, dramatic, corporate, or documentary.
In the next series of exercises, you’ll follow a checkerboard editing workflow that starts
with watching the scene and creating a track for each character.
184 Lesson 5 Editing Dialogue Tracks

1 Open the 5 Dialogue Editing Start timeline. Close any unnecessary panels so that you
have only the timeline and viewer showing.
For this scene, all the dialogue clips are properly mapped mono clips with the correct
source channel.
2 Play the scene and listen to how many characters have speaking parts. (Hint: computer
voices count as characters.)
Three characters have speaking parts: Emiliana, Philip, and ADA. Each will need a
separate dialogue track. ADA’s voice is already on a separate track, whereas Emiliana
and Philip still need separate tracks. So, let’s leave Emiliana’s clips in the upper track
and move all of Philip’s dialogue to a new track.
3 Right-click the A1 Track header and choose Add Track > Mono to create a new mono
track below A1.
4 Change the names of the first two tracks to: A1, EMILIANA, and A2, PHILIP.

Let’s also change the A2 and A3 track colors to help differentiate the clips within the
checkerboard edit.
5 Right-click the A2 PHILIP track header, and choose Change Track Color > Yellow.
Change the color of the A3 ADA TEST VOICE track to Tan.
The tracks are set and ready for separate clips…almost. Many dialogue editors will do
one more thing before splitting up the dialogue tracks.…
Resetting Clip Levels

Because these exercises are based on real-world workflows, this is a good time to learn
how to reset volume levels to their default settings. Why would you do this? Because,
in the real world, most dialogue editors and audio professionals prefer to start with
“clean” unaltered audio, so they can personally determine which tools and processing
are necessary to prepare the best-sounding dialogue tracks for mixing—just as colorists
clear all editor-applied grades and plug-ins before they begin grading, and makeup artists
start with a clean makeup-free face instead of adding makeup on top of performer-
applied makeup.
So, please keep in mind that if you are an assistant editor who spends tireless hours
normalizing, keyframing, and tweaking dialogue levels on your scenes before passing
them along to the audio department, your efforts are appreciated by the picture editor
and anyone who screened the edit.
Meanwhile, seasoned dialogue editors will likely begin each new scene with clean dialogue
by resetting all the levels, removing any plug-ins or EQ applied to the timeline clips. This
is quite easy to accomplish in the Inspector or the Remove Attributes dialog. For this
exercise, you’ll use the Remove Attributes dialog to reset the clips in the A1 and A3 tracks.
1 In the A1 track, drag the Selection tool across all the clips to select them.
2 Right-click the selected clips and choose Remove Attributes.

3 In the Remove Attributes dialog, check Audio Attributes to automatically select all
three options: Volume, Plugins, and Equalizer.
4 Click Apply.
The clips in the A1 track have all been reset.
5 Repeat the previous steps to reset the clips on the A3 track. When you are finished,
click any empty space in the timeline to deselect all the clips.
With the tracks created and the levels reset, you are ready to move the dialogue clips
to the correct character tracks.
Using Shortcuts to Move

Clips Between Tracks
Sure, you could manually drag clips between tracks using your mouse. But professional
audio editing is all about precision editing and shortcut-driven, efficient workflows.
By design, the Fairlight page is a fully-loaded digital audio workstation (DAW) packed with
easy shortcuts that enable lightning-fast audio editing. For example, moving clips between
tracks using keyboard shortcuts is similar to moving text between lines in a word-processing
program. In fact, the shortcuts to cut, copy, and paste are identical to the shortcuts in
most word processors.
In this exercise, you’ll use shortcuts for everything from selecting tracks, to moving the
playhead, and editing the selected clip to a different track.
The keyboard shortcuts for clip editing are identical in macOS and Windows. Their only
differences are the modifier keys. In macOS, you’ll use the modifier keys Command and
Option, whereas on a Windows system, you’ll use the modifier keys Ctrl and Alt.
For the first part of this exercise, you’ll first use the menu to apply a command. Then, you’ll
use the keyboard shortcut the next time you use that command. After that, you’ll be ready
to fly through your workflow using only shortcuts to finish the job. And don’t worry about
memorizing shortcuts; chances are you already know them, and if not, you’ll pick them up
after a single use.

1 Press Home to move the playhead to the beginning of the timeline. Mute the A4
DRONE 1 track.
2 Choose Timeline > Timeline Destination Selection > Audio Destination A1 to select
the A1 track. While the menu is visible, look at the other Track Destination Selection
options and shortcuts.
Notice that the keyboard shortcut to select the A1 track is Option-Command-1 (macOS)
or Alt-Ctrl-1 (Windows). Also, in the Track Destination Selection options, you’ll see that
the shortcuts to Move Audio Track Destination Up or Down use the same macOS/
Windows modifier keys along with the Up Arrow or Down Arrow. If you look closely
at the list of shortcuts from Audio Destination downward, you’ll see that the Audio
shortcuts all use the same two modifier keys. So, the good news is that the only thing
you need to remember is the two modifier keys (the two keys closest to the Spacebar)
and track number or the Up and Down Arrows. Easy.
You already use the JKL shortcuts for navigation; so, in this exercise, you’ll use the
Down Arrow or Up Arrow to move between clips, because when a track is selected,
the arrow keys move the playhead to the next clip in the track and select that clip
automatically. Let’s try it.
3 With the A1 track already selected, press the Down Arrow to select the first clip in the
selected track.

This clip doesn’t contain dialogue, so for now, let’s leave it and move on. Pressing the
Down Arrow key moves down the timeline, stopping at the head and tail (first and last
frame) of each clip as it goes.
Remember, the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys jump to the previous or next clip,
marker, and fade by default. If necessary, you can change the Navigation Options in
the Timeline View Options menu.
4 Press the Down Arrow as many times as necessary to move down the timeline to the
head of the fourth clip.
5 Press the Spacebar to play the clip. When playback is finished, press the Up Arrow, if
necessary, to move the playhead to the tail of the clip and select it.
Clearly, this is Philip’s dialogue clip. So, you’ll now use a command to cut the clip. Once
cut, you can select Philip’s track as the destination and paste the clip in the new track.
Let’s look at the Edit menu to verify which shortcuts you’ll need.
6 Click the Edit menu, and hold down the mouse button for a moment to look at the
common edit commands and shortcuts.
The shortcut for Cut is Command-X (macOS) or Ctrl-X (Windows).
The shortcut for Copy is Command-C (macOS) or Ctrl-C (Windows).
The shortcut for Paste is Command-V (macOS) or Ctrl-V (Windows).
Most likely, these are exactly the same shortcuts that you use for text editing as well.

7 Choose Edit > Cut, or press Command-X (macOS) or Ctrl-X (Windows).
The Selected clip turns semitransparent to indicate that it has been cut from the
current position and is ready to move and paste elsewhere.
8 Press Command-Option-Down Arrow (macOS) or Ctrl-Alt-Down Arrow (Windows) to

select the A2 track.
The semitransparent clip appears in the exact same position on the A2 track.
9 Press Command-V (macOS) or Ctrl-V (Windows) to paste the clip into the new track.
The clip is moved. Keep in mind that cutting-and-pasting destinations are actually
based on the playhead position. So be careful not to move the playhead after you cut a
clip, if you are simply moving it to a different track.
10 Press Command-Option-Up Arrow (macOS) or Ctrl-Alt-Up Arrow (Windows) to select

the A1 track.
The A1 track is selected and ready for you to locate and move Philip’s other clips.
Notice that the clip that you pasted into Philip’s track is yellow because you previously
changed the track color. All the clips you move to Philip’s track will also turn yellow
while they are on that track.

Finishing the Job
You’ve done excellent work setting up the dialogue tracks and moving the first clip
to Philip’s track. You’re hired! As an intern. No money, of course, but you’ll gain lots of
experience and infrequent compliments.
To finish separating out the dialogue tracks, you’re now on your own. It’s up to you to use
the same shortcuts to locate and move Philip’s remaining dialogue clips to the A2 track.
If you make mistakes, no worries, just choose Edit > Undo and try again.
When you’re finished, change the A1 track color to Orange.
A few things to consider before you get started. Some of the audio clips include production
sounds such as breathing and rustling clothes. Breathing, sighs, snorts, giggles, and so on
are considered part of the dialogue performance and should be moved to the associated
character’s track. If the scene were ever dubbed in another language, the actor performing
the new lines would also need to perform the breaths, signs, and other vocalized sounds.
Clothing movement, footsteps, and other naturally occurring production sounds (nat
sound) picked up by the microphones are often replaced with Foley sound recordings.
You’ll work more with Foley sound effects and other sound design elements in Lesson 7.
In the real world, dialogue editors are also responsible for splitting and moving all non-
dialogue production sound to a separate production effects (PFX) track.
For now, just move clips into the track that belongs to the character responsible for
the sound.
Don’t worry if the heads or tails of some of the clips are a little rough. You’ll clean them up
after they are moved to their own tracks.
Have fun! When you are finished, you can move on to the next section. If you don’t finish,
you’re fired—as an unpaid intern—but please still move on to the next section.
Cleaning Up a Checkerboard Edit

Now that the checkerboard edit is complete, you can clearly see how this technique
got its nickname. In this exercise, you’ll zoom in on the tracks to watch and listen to the
timeline. As you go, you’ll pause playback and clean up any sloppy heads or tails that stand
out during playback. You’ll employ two new features: the Fixed Playhead mode and loop
jog scrubbing.

1 If you completed all the previous exercises, you can continue to work with the 5
Dialogue Editing Start timeline. If not, open the timeline 5a Dialogue Tracks Split
to continue.
2 Move the playhead to the first clip in the A3 track. This is ADA’s first line of dialogue in
the scene (01:00:26:11).
3 Zoom in horizontally until you can see only two orange clips on A1, two yellow clips on
A2, and three or four tan clips on A3.
Adjusting the zoom level is great for focusing on specific clips during playback, but
what happens when the playhead reaches the end of the visible area of the timeline?

4 Start playback from the current position, and stop playback after the playhead reaches
the end of visible section of the timeline.
The playhead moves from left to right, and when it reaches the right edge of the
timeline, it continues again from the left as it plays the next section of the timeline.
This is just like turning the pages of a book. This common playback mode works for
most activities, but when you are trying to focus on the sound of the clips, it can
become a little distracting. Let’s change it.
Using Fixed Playhead Mode

for Scrolling Playback
Normal page scrolling playback is highly functional for both picture editing and audio
editing. However, at times, you need a seamless playback experience so that you can
focus all your attention on the sounds and waveforms of the clips as they scroll beneath
the playhead. In that case, you can turn on Fixed Playhead mode. This mode is terrific for
listening to and watching clips, in part because you can always see ahead to the clips that
are coming up.There is also a No Scrolling option where the playhead continues moving
offscreen without updating the visible portion of the timeline.
1 Press Shift-Up Arrow to move the playhead to the blue timeline marker.
The playhead returns to the blue marker, which is now conveniently centered in
the middle of the timeline ruler. This marker, placed right before Philip’s first line of
dialogue, is a great place to start this exercise.
2 Open the Timeline View Options menu, and click the Fixed Playhead button. Close the
menu when you’re finished.

3 Start playback. As the clips scroll beneath the fixed playhead, focus on what you hear,
and which clip is coming up next. When Philip says, “Boom. There was this explosion,
and it surrounded the whole ship,” stop playback.
While admiring the Fixed Playhead mode’s scrolling playback, you probably heard a
few rough patches in Philip’s dialogue.
4 Use the JKL keys to scroll to around 01:01:04:01, right before Philip says, “We’ve been
trying to fix it.”
NOTE In Fixed Playhead mode, you can press the JKL keys or drag the timeline
ruler left or right to scroll the timeline forward or back. To move the fixed
playhead to a different position, you drag the top of the playhead where it
crosses the ruler.
5 Start playback again and focus on the end of the current clip and the head and tail of
the next clip. When Philip says, “Two hours ago,” stop playback.
Clearly, Philip’s dialogue clip that includes the words, “went space walking,” needs
some work at both its head and tail. At this point, you’ll go back to normal timeline
scrolling playback mode to clean up the clip. However, the next time you need to
focus on audio playback, you can simply turn on Fixed Playhead mode and let the
timeline scroll!
Trimming Synced Audio in the Timeline

For this exercise, you’ll zoom in on the errant clip in the A2 track and trim the head and tail
to clean it up. Keep in mind that this audio is sync’d, so you can’t physically move the clip
without also forcing it out of sync with the picture. Also, because the clip is between two
other clips on the same track, you’ll need to make sure that as you trim one clip you don’t
accidentally create a problem in another clip.
1 Open the Timeline View Options menu and click the Page Scrolling (middle) button for
Timeline Scrolling.
2 Move the playhead to 01:01:08:08, which is directly over the clip that you’ll work on.
Zoom in horizontally until you can clearly see the clip beneath the playhead, as well as
most of the neighboring clips on either side.

3 Right-click the clip at 01:01:08:08 and choose Clip Color > Lime.
At its current size, parts of the waveform are cut off at both the head and tail of the
clip. Also, the bright green color makes it easy to identify the clip as a work in progress.
Let’s mark In and Out points around that section of the dialogue to include the word or
phrase just before and after the current clip. Then, you can determine exactly what is
wrong and how to fix it without compromising the other clips.
4 Press R to enter Range mode. Drag a selection rectangle around the clips on the
A2 track from around 01:01:06:00 to 01:01:11:00.
TIP You can see the timecode for the In and Out points in the timecode
display in the upper left of the timeline and use it as a guide while you drag
your selection.
5 Press A to go back to standard Pointer mode.

6 Turn on Looped Playback, if necessary. Press Option-/ (slash) in macOS or Alt-/ (slash)
in Windows to start looped playback. After you listen to the section a few times,
stop playback.
The first clip ends with Philip saying, “Since it happened,” followed by a large intake of
breath. The middle clip starts in the middle of the word “you” as Philip says, “You went
space walking.” To fix the first edit point between dialogue clips, you can extend the
head of the lime clip to include the entire word “you.” Don’t worry about cutting some
of Philip’s breath sound from the tail of the outgoing yellow clip. Dialogue editing is
about making the dialogue clear and intelligible. The breath sounds are important but
also incidental to the dialogue.
Remember that when you trim an audio clip in the Fairlight timeline, you see the
entire waveform of the clip, which makes it easy to see where words and phrases
start and end.
7 Drag the head of the lime green clip to the left to include the entire word “you.” Use the
waveform as a guide as you extend the clip.
8 Drag the tail of the lime green clip to the left until you remove all of the waveform (the
partial word) at the end of the clip.

9 Play from the In point to the Out point to hear your edits in the timeline. During
playback, listen to the performance and don’t focus on the gap between the clips.
You’ll fill that in with tone in the next lesson.
10 When you are finished evaluating that section of dialogue, stop playback.
What are your thoughts? Does the dialogue sound natural? Does anything distract
from the words or performance?
Did you notice that Philip takes two breaths before his line, “Then just two hours ago”?
The first partial breath is at the end of the lime green clip while Philip is offscreen.
The second breath is right before his line, “Then just two hours ago.” The first
partial breath is unnecessary and should be trimmed. The second breath is part of
the performance.
To Breathe or Not to Breathe?

The Secret to De-Breathing Dialogue
Breathing is part of dialogue. Inexperienced audio editors commonly remove purposeful
(and sometime meaningful) breath sounds while trying to remove unwanted noise
from poorly recorded dialogue. In doing so, the dialogue loses its humanity, and the
performances suffer. If you see a character breathe, inhale, or exhale as part of the
performance, it is important to include that breath with the dialogue.
If your talent takes excessively loud breaths, or they suffer from a cold or sinus condition
that involves distracting whistling or wheezing, then by all means tone down the wheezing
or replace it with less distracting breaths. But don’t remove it entirely.
Here are three circumstances where you should completely remove all breathing from
recorded voiceover/dialogue tracks:
— In commercial advertising voiceovers in which the words spoken about a product or

service are more important than the human speaking them. In this case, because
of the types of microphones and intimacy of the recorded voice, breath sounds will
distract from the message. So, for commercial advertising, the message is king,
despite the presence of hot air.
— When the character isn’t a living, breathing creature, such as a talking computer like
ADA. In this case, the computer doesn’t breathe, so it is natural and even expected that
the voiceover will be devoid of breath sounds.
— The character is alive but based on the science-fiction/fantasy concept that it doesn’t
breathe air to speak. (Or perhaps a character telepathically communicates with
another character, so all his dialogue is conveyed nonverbally.) Whatever the situation,
just keep enough of the sounds generated to vocalize words consistent with the
character. For example, if your mermaid character breathes water through gills and is
talking underwater, you might want to hear water sloshing through the gills but with
no audible air movement through the mouth.

Increasing Size and Waveform
for Easier Trimming
One advantage of working in the Fairlight audio page is that you can zoom in as much
as necessary to clean up your dialogue tracks. In this exercise, you’ll increase the height
and width of Philip’s dialogue track to better see the breath waveforms. Then, you’ll apply
Track Waveform Zoom, which increases the height and visibility of the waveform without
increasing volume. The enlarged waveform can be used as a guide for easier trimming.
1 Select the A2 PHILIP track, if necessary.
2 Move the playhead over the middle of the lime green clip.
3 Drag the Vertical zoom slider all the way to the right to dramatically increase the height
of the selected track.
4 Press Command-= (equals sign) in macOS or Ctrl-= (equals sign) in Windows to

zoom in horizontally.
The playback range from 01:01:06:00 to 01:01:11:00 should now dominate the timeline.

5 Right-click the lime green clip and choose Track Waveform Zoom > Zoom In All Tracks.
Feel free to repeat this step several times to increase the size of the zoomed waveform.
NOTE If you’re working with a three-button mouse, you can hold Option-
Command and scroll the middle-mouse button/wheel to increase or decrease
the waveform zoom level. Keep in mind that changing the waveform zoom level
for a selected track does not affect the track’s volume.
In the larger waveform, you can clearly see the waveforms for the separate breaths
and the ambient room sound that was picked up by the microphones. In the next
lesson, you’ll use room sound (room tone) to fill the gaps between the dialogue clips.
For now, let’s focus on fixing those breath sounds.
6 Mark a new playback range from 01:01:08:00 to 01:01:10:00. This range cuts off the
dialogue but makes it easier to focus on the breaths between words.
The breath sound at the end of the lime-colored clip represents a fairly large increase
in the waveform, so you should be able to trim it just by using the waveform as a visual
guide. Keep in mind that Philip is offscreen at this point, so there’s no reason to include
this breath, just the sound of him moving across the room.
7 Move the playhead just before Philip’s breath sound at 01:01:08:15.

8 Trim the tail of the lime clip to the playhead.
9 Listen to the play range.
Right-click the lime-colored clip and choose Track Waveform Zoom > Reset Zoom All
Tracks to reset it.
10 Press R to enter Range mode. Click any empty space in the timeline to clear the
timeline marks. Then, click the lime clip to mark that clip for playback. Press A to enter
standard Selection mode.
11 Listen to the green clip. When you’re finished, press Option-X (macOS) or Alt-X
(Windows) to clear the In and Out points.
The end of the lime clip sounds much better with the removal of the partial breath.
Scrubbing Audio at the Sample

Level Using Loop Jog
Scrubbing is the term used for listening to audio as you move the playhead back and forth
over an audio clip in the timeline. When standard audio scrubbing is turned on, you can
use it by pressing the JKL keys or by dragging the playhead through the timeline ruler.

Loop jog scrubbing, on the other hand, provides a sample-level preview of the audio
while scrubbing the playhead. Both types of scrubbing are available in the Timeline menu.
Audio scrubbing is turned on by default, and you can toggle it on and off by pressing
Shift-S. In this exercise, you’ll use both standard audio scrubbing and loop jog scrubbing
to preview and precisely trim the head of the next clip.
Why expend so much effort to trim the breath at the head of a clip? Because, in addition to
editing spoken words and managing audible breaths, dialogue editors are also responsible
for removing unwanted human noises such as lip smacks and tongue clicks. As you know,
at the beginning of the next clip, Philip takes a breath onscreen as part of his performance.
Right before that breath is a bit of mouth noise that should be eliminated. So, for this
precision maneuver, you’ll employ the power of loop jog scrubbing to determine how
much to trim.
1 Move the playhead to the empty space between the lime green and yellow clips.
2 Drag the horizontal scroller at the bottom of the timeline to the right until the end of
the lime green clip is near the A2 track header. Then, increase the vertical height of the
A2 track as shown in the screenshot below.
You should have a clear view of the waveform and the beginning of the yellow clip.
3 Drag the playhead from the head of the clip to find the beginning of Philip’s first
words, “Then, just two hours ago.”
With standard audio scrubbing turned on, as you scrubbed the playhead over the clip,
you should have heard a bit of the tongue click and breath sounds.

4 Press Shift-S to toggle off audio scrubbing. Try scrubbing the beginning of the
clip again.
This time, you can’t hear any sound at all while dragging the playhead. Without audio
scrubbing enabled, you are limited to using your eyes to judge the waveform while
trimming, which is not recommended!
5 Press Shift-S again to turn on audio scrubbing.
6 In the Timeline menu, choose Loop Jog to enable loop jog mode. If necessary, enable
Audio Scrubbing before enabling Loop Jog in the Timeline menu.
7 Drag the playhead over the beginning of the clip once again. When you reach Philip’s
words, hold the playhead still.
This time, you could probably hear much more detail as you scrubbed the playhead.
The fast-looping sound you hear is an 80-ms (millisecond) sample preview of the
sound preceding the playhead.
8 Release the playhead. Press the Up Arrow to move the playhead to the beginning of
the clip.
9 Press Command-, (comma) in macOS or Ctrl-, (comma) in Windows to open the

Preferences panel.
10 Click the User button to show the User Preferences panel, and in the preferences
sidebar, click the Fairlight tab.
In the Fairlight General Settings, you’ll see the Loop Jog Alignment dropdown menu and
a field in which to set the Loop Jog Width. The default setting is 80 ms (milliseconds).

11 Change Loop Jog Alignment to Centered. Click the Loop Jog Width numeric field,
and drag to the right to its highest setting, 2000 ms. Click Save.
Each second of video equals 1000 ms. So, by setting the loop jog amount to 2000
ms and centering it around the playhead, you will hear 1 second before and after the
playhead. Let’s test this in the timeline.
12 Scrub the playhead over the beginning of the yellow clip and hold it in place to hear
the loop jog cycle.
Well, those 2000 milliseconds loop exactly as predicted. Unfortunately, it isn’t helpful
at all in this situation. A 2000-millisecond playhead-centered loop jog cycle is handy
for checking playback around edit points, but for cleaning up sound, you’re better off
using the default settings.
13 In the User Preferences of Fairlight General Settings, change the Loop Jog Alignment
to Pre and the Loop Jog Width to 80 ms. Click Save.
With this pre-playhead setting, you can scrub forward slowly over the tongue-clicking
sound and hear the repetitive looping sound of that clicking, which will sound like
teeth chattering as you drag. When you no longer hear the chattering sound, you will
know that you are clear of the tongue click.
TIP Increasing the volume of a clip is helpful when trying to identify and trim
low-level sounds. Dragging the volume overlay is a fast way to increase the clip
level while you work. When you finish, double-click the clip volume overlay to
reset to the default value.

14 From the beginning of the clip, slowly scrub the
playhead forward while listening to the loop-jog
click‑chattering sound caused by the tongue.
When you no longer hear the chatter, release
the playhead.
Next, you will trim the head of the clip. You can do
this manually by dragging the head of the clip to the
playhead or use a Trim menu option to trim the start of
the clip. Let’s use the Trim Start option available in the
Trim menu. In order to use the Trim Start option, either
the clip or the track must be selected.
15 If necessary, select the A2 track. Choose Trim > Trim

Start or press Shift [ (Left Bracket) to trim the head of the
selected clip to the playhead position.

16 Reset the clip volume level, if necessary. Play the clip from the beginning to hear
the improvement to the head of the clip.
17 Choose Timeline > Loop Jog to deselect the scrubbing mode.
18 Zoom out of the timeline and tracks to fit all the clips in the Timeline window.
Mission accomplished! Philip’s dramatic performance at the head of the clip–including

his intake of breath–sounds great. The dialogue track cleanup tasks are complete for
now. And best of all, you’ve added a few new Fairlight tools and techniques to your pro-
audio skillset.
Balancing Dialogue Clip Levels

Finally, you have reached the last major step of dialogue editing. You need to balance the
dialogue levels for the entire scene, so they are consistent throughout. To do so, you’ll
adjust the audio volume overlay on each clip while watching the track meters in the mixer.
During this process, you’ll also apply keyframes to the volume overlay, when necessary,
and apply clip normalization to automatically set the peak levels on some clips.
To further understand the task, let’s look closer at the Fairlight mixer and the target levels
for dialogue.
NOTE For the following exercises, you will continue working with the same
timeline. If for any reason you didn’t complete all the previous exercises, feel free to
open and continue working with the 5b Dialogue Clip Levels timeline.
1 Show the mixer. Drag the left edge of the mixer to the left to extend it until you see all
four tracks (A1 through A4) plus the Bus 1 output (B1).
The Fairlight mixer opens to the right of the timeline. You can easily identify each track
by the color bar at the top and the track name in the middle.
3 Select the A1 EMILIANA track.
As you can see, in the mixer, the corresponding channel strip is also selected.
4 In the mixer, in the A1 channel strip, click the Solo button to solo the A1 track.
The Solo button in the A1 track header is also in the on position. Because the first clip
in the A1 track has no dialogue, let’s move on to the second and third clips.

5 Create a playback range around the second and third clips in the A1 Track.
You’ll work more extensively with the mixer in Lessons 10–14. For now, focus on the
meters at the bottom of each channel strip.
Reading the Meters for Dialogue

Not only are the meters in the Fairlight mixer easy to read, but they are also color coded so
you can watch numerous tracks at once and quickly see if they are within the target range.
Loudest peak
Dialogue range

The solid color in the meter shows the current volume level on a decibel scale. These peak
meters are “sticky,” which means that they have a thin horizontal line that sticks to the
loudest peak level, even when the current level is lower than the recent peak. Peaks within
the green level area are safe and have no chance of being too loud. Yellow peak levels are
good targets to aim for when working with dialogue. Red peak levels are getting close to
being too loud and clipping, or becoming distorted. When you get to the final mix, it is OK
to let some of your peaks go into the red as long don’t go too far into the red and don’t
remain there too long. However, at this point in the process, your dialogue levels should
be well within the yellow range. The exceptions might be a loud scream or whisper, neither
of which are in this scene.
Establishing Target Dialogue Levels

Whether your scene is narrative, voiceover, or a talking-head interview, you manage the
dialogue level on each clip in the same way.
Record
Solo
Mute
Dialogue dynamic range

-3 dB Loudest scream
-10 dB Louder voice

Volume fader
-12 dB Average dialogue level
-15 dB Softer voice
-20 dB Quietest whisper
The average level should be around -12 decibels (dB) on this peak meter. However, context
is also important. If you have characters who are bigger and louder, their levels might be
closer to -10 dB. A quieter voice might sound better around -15 dB because it is a speaking
voice. Blood-curdling screams could be as high as -3 dB, while hushed whispers might be
as low as -20 dB.

Let’s see where Emiliana’s dialogue falls on the meters in the second and third clips.
1 Turn on looped playback, if necessary.
2 Press Option-/ (slash) in macOS or Alt-/ (slash) in Windows to start looped playback.
3 Look at the meter in the A1 channel strip to determine the current dialogue level.
During playback, watch the solid bar in the meter to see the average level. Also, look
for the highest peak, based on the horizontal peak mark in the meter.
4 Stop playback.
The average level in the first dialogue clip was around -27 dB, while the average for the
second clip was around -22 dB. In both cases, the clips are significantly lower than the
target level of -12 dB.
You have enough information to go ahead and start adjusting the clip levels. However,
the Fairlight page includes two additional tools that you can employ here to make
evaluating and adjusting clip levels even easier, including Clip Volume display and the
Meter plug-in.

5 Choose Fairlight > View Clip Info Display and click the Volume option to select it.
Click OK.
The clip gain line volume level now appears in the lower-left corner of each clip. In this
case, the dialogue clips are all at the default level of 0.00dB, indicating that no change
has been applied to the clip levels.
6 Show the Effects Library. In the Fairlight FX list, drag the Meter plug-in to the A1 track
header. Hide the Effects Library.
A floating Meter window named after its corresponding track, EMILIANA, appears in
the middle of the timeline.
7 Drag the EMILIANA meter to the A1 track and place it between the two clips that
you’re evaluating.

NOTE The Meter plug-in is an SPPM (sample peak program meter) that shows
the Sample Peak Level during playback. You can apply this plug-in to any track
for an easy readout of the current sample peak levels. You can also apply the
plug-in to your main output and busses. To resize the floating meter, drag the
lower-right corner. If you close the floating meter, you can reopen it any time by
clicking the Customize button for the meter plug-in in the mixer or Inspector.
Here, you can also delete the Meter plug-in when you no longer need it.
8 Start looped playback and watch the floating Meter window to see the average levels.
With the help of the floating meter, you should easily be able to see the levels of the
clips during playback.
9 Stop playback. Choose Reset from the Options menu (...) at the top or the Meter
window to reset the meter.

Adjusting Clip Levels
Now that you know the levels of Emiliana’s first two dialogue clips, and you know the level
that you’re aiming for in the meters, you can start adjusting each clip’s gain line overlay to
raise that clip’s level. Later, when you start pre-mixing tracks, you can use the volume fader
in the mixer to raise or lower the overall level of each track.
1 Zoom in horizontally as much as necessary to focus on the second and third orange
clips. Feel free to move the floating Meter as needed.
Remember, you want the adjusted level to average around -12 dB on the meter.
Depending on the actor’s voice and inflection, some fluctuation will occur between
the peaks and the average. In this clip, the average (solid bar) is around -26 dB,
while the peak is near -23 dB. So, the difference between the current average
and the desired average (-12 dB) is approximately 14 dB.
2 Press R, and using the Range tool, click the first of the two orange clips to mark it
with a play range. From this point forward, you will simply be asked to mark the clip or
mark a play range.
3 Press A to go back to Pointer mode, and select the clip.

4 In the timeline, drag the Clip Gain overlay upward until the tooltip reads between
11.00 and 12.00. Hold Shift while dragging for finer incremental level control.
Notice the clip gain level in the clip display.
5 Play the marked clip to see if it is closer to the average target level of -12 dB.
The average is right on target. Now you can move on to the next clip. This time, you will
adjust it on-the-fly during playback using keyboard shortcuts from the Clip menu.
6 Mark the next dialogue clip in the A1 track. Then, select the clip with the Pointer tool.
7 Start looped playback. During playback, press Option-Command-= (equals) macOS or

Alt-Ctrl-= (equals) Windows and Option-Command-–(minus) macOS or Alt-Ctrl--(minus)
Windows to increase or decrease the level of the selected clip. Continue adjusting the
level until the average level is around -12 dB.

8 When you are finished, stop playback.
The clip gain level in the clip display should be between 6.00dB and 7.00dB.
Remember, the numbers in the clip display represent the percentage of change (gain)
applied to the original level of the source material. They do not specify the actual
volume level of the output.
Don’t worry about finding the perfect number. As long as Emiliana’s dialogue levels are
consistent and those levels reflect the context of the scene, it should be fine. Later, you
can finesse the levels of the entire track when you start mixing.
9 Scroll down to the last orange clip in the A1 track.
10 Mark the clip. Use either the Range Selection tool or the Selection tool to adjust the
volume overly.
11 Start playback and set the volume level for the clip.
This time, the clip level needs to be lowered by around -4.00dB.
12 Choose Mark > Clear In and Out or press Option-X (macOS) or Alt-X (Windows).
13 Press Shift-Z to fit all the clips horizontally in the timeline. Press A for the Pointer tool.
Close the floating EMILIANA meter.
Excellent work. Hopefully, by the third clip you were more comfortable with the
workflow and confident in your clip level settings. One of the wonderful things
about audio post work is that it is fairly straightforward once you understand what
you need to do and why.
Using Keyframes to Change Clip Levels

In Lesson 1, you used keyframes to lower the music levels during the voiceover sections of
the soundtrack. In this exercise, you’ll use keyframes to change the volume levels within a
dialogue clip. When making these kinds of changes, it’s a good idea to first find an average
level that works for most of the clip’s dialogue, and then apply keyframes to raise or lower
only those sections that need further adjustment. For this exercise, let’s move to the A2
track and work on two of Philip’s dialogue clips. Along the way, you’ll utilize some new
DaVinci Resolve 18 features and enhancements available in the Fairlight page.
1 Un-solo the A1 track and select the A2 track.
Next, you’ll add a Meter plug-in to the A2 PHILIP track. However, instead of adding a
new plug-in, you can simply drag the meter plug-in from the A1 track to the A2 track
in the mixer. That’s right: You can now drag and drop or Option-drag to copy plug-ins
from track to track. Let’s try it.

2 At the top of the mixer, locate the Meter plug-in on the A1 channel strip.
Notice that the Insert button (In) on the A1 channel strip is yellow, indicating that a
plug-in effect has been applied to the track.
3 In the mixer, drag the Meter plug-in from the effects list in the A1 channel strip to the
effects list in the A2 channel strip.
The Insert button on A2 shows that there is now a plug-in on that track, and the
floating Meter is named PHILIP just like the A2 track.
NOTE In addition to showing that a track has plug-ins applied to it, the Insert
button can also be used to toggle off and on all of a track’s plug-ins with a
single click.

4 In the timeline, zoom in on the two yellow clips right after the lime green clip on the A2
PHILIP track.
5 Play the two clips to hear the dialogue and watch the meters to get a feel for the
overall levels. Pay attention to the context and emotion in Philip’s performance.
You probably noticed that his levels were right on target in some places and much
quieter in others. However, dialogue isn’t a one-size-fits-all proposition. When Philip
gets excited about the explosion, his voice should be a little louder. And when he
returns to Emiliana to tell her that she (the other Emiliana) died, he is a little choked up
and his voice is understandably lower. To maintain the authenticity of the performance,
you want to maintain some difference between his levels, but not too much. Let’s
add a few keyframes to bring Philip’s levels closer to the target levels. Remember, the
difference between a loud speaking voice (-10 dB) and an audible hushed whisper
(-20 dB) is only 10 decibels.
NOTE In Lesson 10, you’ll explore dynamics processing that can manage the
dynamic range between the loudest and quietest speech levels.
Let’s start with the first clip where Philip says, “Then just two hours ago…boom…there
was this explosion, and it surrounded the whole ship.”
6 Mark the clip. Zoom in as much as necessary to clearly see the entire waveform of
the selected clip. Start looped playback and watch the levels. When you are finished,
stop playback.

Looking at the waveform in the selected clip, you can clearly see that the beginning
of the clip is much quieter than the end. The tricky part with this clip is to raise the
level of Philip’s line, “Then just two hours ago,” without cranking up the level of his
breath sound.
7 Scrub the playhead over the clip or press the JK or KL keys in combination to find
where Philip’s breath stops and his speech begins. Visually, this occurs when his
head turns.
8 Move the playhead to 01:01:09:18.
This is where you will set the first keyframe. Luckily, with DaVinci Resolve 18, applying
keyframes to the clip gain line is as easy as dragging a range. Literally! Instead of
Option/Alt-clicking the line to add keyframes one at a time, you’ll simply drag a range
and the keyframes will be added automatically when you adjust the range level.
9 Press R for the Range tool. Click in the empty space in the timeline to clear the
current range.
10 Drag a range on the clip from the playhead position (01:01:09:18) to the end of Philip’s
line, “Then just two hours ago….” The range doesn’t need to be exact, as long as it is
after the breath and the dialogue is included.

11 With the Range tool, drag the clip gain line within the range upward to increase
the level.
As you can see, two pairs of keyframes appear on both sides of the range to
accommodate the level change.
12 Start looped playback and watch the meter as you finesse the levels. When you’ve
finished, the gain should be somewhere between 6.00 dB and 8.00 dB.
13 Stop playback and clear the range. Press A to return to Pointer mode.
How do you know the clip gain levels once there are changes within the clip? Simply
select a keyframe or the gain line to see a tooltip.

NOTE You can also adjust clip volume, set and delete keyframes, and even
navigate between keyframes in the Inspector. Working with keyframes in the
Inspector is based on the current playhead position and the selected clip.
Here are some basic guidelines for setting and deleting audio keyframes:
— As the name suggests, keyframes are used to set values on specific frames. So, you
can create and move them based on full frames, regardless of your zoom level.
— Pairs of keyframes between sections of dialogue make it easier to raise or lower
each section as you go.
— To set keyframes one at a time, Option-click (macOS) or Alt-click (Windows) the
volume gain line.
— After a keyframe is created, you can move it or select and delete it.
— Command-Option-click (macOS) or Ctrl-Alt-click (Windows) a keyframe with the
pointer to delete it.
— To clear all the keyframes on a clip, in the Inspector, click the Clip Volume Reset button.
Next, your goal is to increase the volume of the next part of the dialogue just before the
large spike in the waveform that represents the “plosion” part of the word “explosion.”
In fact, the waveform spike in “plosion” is a perfect representative of a plosive.

NOTE Plosives are power hits in the waveform usually caused by pronouncing
syllables that include “B” or “P” sounds. In audio post-production, taming the
plosives and sibilance (“esses”) are two of the fundamental tasks in preparing
dialogue tracks for mixing. You’ll work more with plosives and sibilance in the
next series of lessons.
14 Move the playhead to just before the powerful spike in the waveform between “ex”
and “plosion” at around 01:01:13:00. Drag a range from the playhead toward the left
to include the beginning of the line, “Boom.” Then, start looped playback and raise the
volume gain level before the plosive to somewhere between 2:00 and 4:00 so that the
average part of the waveform looks and sounds similar to the levels on the other side
of the plosive.
15 Clear the range. Scrub the playhead over the section you just worked on and watch the
meters to see the levels.
Scrubbing the playhead is a great way to check levels without having to play the clip. Of
course, listening to the clip levels in context is important for evaluating the levels.
16 Play the finished clip. When you’re finished, close the floating meter.
The changes in volume are seamless yet are all within the standard dialogue range.
Did you notice that the levels are also in the yellow range on the meters? The more you
work with dialogue, the quicker you’ll become at recognizing levels and making the
necessary adjustments.

More Keyframes, Please!
Now that you’ve set keyframes to balance Philip’s dialogue levels within a clip, this is the
perfect time to practice your skills. Take a few minutes to practice what you have learned
and balance the levels in the next clip where Philip says, “We also sustained some hull
damage, but…its nothing critical...and…now you’re here. Alive…and…you look just like her.”
This will be challenging but not unusually difficult to do. Just think it through as you go.
A colorist must match visual levels with the previous and following clips, so you’ll do the
same here for dialogue. Because Philip is continuing a sentence from the previous clip,
it’s a good idea to match the first part of the clip to the previous clip. Then, add keyframes
as necessary to raise other words or phrases. Trust your ears and the meters.
Philip isn’t whispering; he is talking, albeit quietly in places, so don’t leave his dialogue as
low as a whisper (-20 dB). How much, and which phrases you adjust are up to you.
Also, remember that part of the waveform is only the sound of Philip crossing the room
and leaning in. Just as you avoided raising the level of his initial breath, consider keeping
those levels lower than the dialogue. Good luck.
When you’re finished, if you have time, adjust the lime green clip and the clip before it so
that the entire series of four clips sound good together. If you are feeling dialogue savvy,
by all means finish all of Philip’s track.
Applying Auto-Leveling
to Balance Clips
If you think balancing dialogue levels is agonizing and tedious, DaVinci Resolve offers two
“cheats.” Resolve 18 includes automatic clip volume normalization and a new AI-based
track effect: the Dialogue Leveler. Let’s start with normalization.
Clip normalization is available in both the edit page and Fairlight page for quickly setting
the peak levels in a clip without considering the context of the scene or the performance.
Auto clip-normalization is like using the auto-white balance tool in the color page. It’s an
easy way to set a starting point for an editor who needs to quickly set levels on audio clips.
Of course, now that you’re a seasoned dialogue editor, you probably have no interest
in using auto-normalization. However, it’s still worth knowing about, and in fact the one
circumstance in which auto-normalization is most effective is when you are working with
a voiceover track with little or no inflection or emotion to consider—a computer voice,
for example. And it just so happens this timeline has such a track—so, you’re in luck.

In this exercise, you’ll apply normalization to the clips in the A3 ADA TEST VOICE track.
1 Clear the range, if necessary. Select the A3 track. Hide any open panels.
2 Adjust the zoom levels in the track until you can clearly see the first five clips in the
A3 track.
3 Right-click the first clip in the A3 track and choose Normalize Audio Levels to open
the Normalize Audio Level panel for that clip.
In the Normalize Audio Level dialog, you can select a peak Target Level in dBFS
(decibels full scale). If the average level should be around -12, then the peaks might
be closer to -9. Let’s try it.
4 Set the Target Level to -9 dBFS, which is the default level, and click Normalize.
The clip gain line and waveform in the clip are reduced slightly. So, what actually
happened? Normalization set the volume gain so that the highest peak in the clip is at
the volume level that you designated (-9 dBFS).
5 In the mixer, drag the Meter plug-in from the A2 channel strip to the A3 channel strip.
6 Play the clip and look at the meters.
The clip’s average level is around -11 dB, and the peak doesn’t exceed a sample
peak of -8.9 in the meter ( 9 dBFS). That’s not bad for the level of a talking computer.

Remember, balancing the dialogue clips starts with setting the levels within a clip and
then adjusting all the clips in the track to sound good together. If it turns out that all of
Ada’s dialogue seems a little too loud, you can always lower her track level as necessary.
One added benefit of using Resolve’s auto-normalization is that you can apply it to
multiple clips at once.
7 Select the first five clips in the A3 track. Then, right-click one of the selected clips and
choose Normalize Audio Levels.
This time, the Normalize Audio Level pane includes two Set Level options: Relative
and Independent. The Relative option treats the group of selected clips as if they
were one clip, so the highest peak among the clips determines all their relative
levels. Independent, on the other hand, normalizes each clip separately based on
each clip’s peaks.
8 Set the Target Level to -10 dBFS and select Independent for the Set Level. Click Normalize.
9 Solo and select the A3 track. Play the first five clips and watch the levels as you listen to
the dialogue.
As you can see and hear, the levels don’t exceed the target levels and are fairly well
balanced. You might notice that some of the clips still seem louder than others. If your
instinct while listening was to stop and investigate, you might want to manually adjust the
levels to improve them, which means you have the makings of a dialogue editor!
Now, let’s employ the powerful DaVinci Neural Engine AI to process and level the dialogue
automatically.
Working with the Dialogue Leveler

DaVinci Resolve 18.1 introduced a new built-in Track FX called the Dialogue Leveler. This
effect is available in the cut, edit, and Fairlight pages. The Dialogue Leveler recognizes the
human voice and balances the levels for natural-sounding results using three different

processes to reduce loud dialogue, lift soft dialogue, and reduce background noise. In this
exercise, you’ll remove the keyframes and level changes from Philip’s track and apply the
Dialogue Leveler instead to see and hear the results.
1 Open the 5d Dialogue Leveler timeline. Hide the media pool.
This timeline is a duplicate of the finished version of the timeline you were just
balancing. The first step will be to clear all the keyframes and level changes from the
A2 track. This time, instead of manually dragging to select the clips in the track, let’s
use a shortcut.
2 In the timeline, select the A2 PHILIP track header.
3 Press Command-A (macOS) or Ctrl-A (Windows) to select all the clips within the
selected track.
4 Right-click any of the selected clips and choose > Remove Attributes. In the Remove
Attributes dialog, select the Volume option and click Apply.

All the keyframes and level changes have been removed.
5 Click any empty space to deselect the clips in the A2 track. Select the A2 track to make
it easier to see in the mixer.
NOTE When working with a processing effect like the Dialogue Leveler, it’s
important to distinguish between applying the effect to a clip and applying it
to a track. One effect applied to an entire track requires less processing than
individual effects on every single clip within the track. In this case, since we are
balancing an entire track, it is logical to enable the effect at the track level. You’ll
work more with clip and track effects later in this book.
6 In the mixer, locate the Track FX area near the top of the channel strips.
When an effect is on the track but not enabled, the name will be italicized, as you can
see with the Dialogue Leveler as Dial Lev in the Track FX list. Once enabled, a track
effect can then be toggled on or off during playback from the customization window
or in the Inspector.
7 Hover over the Dialogue Leveler effect in the A2 channel strip until you see the
buttons to Enable (left) or Control (right) the effect. Click the Enable button.
The Dial Lev text turns yellow and is no longer italic to indicate it has been enabled.

NOTE If you’re working with DaVinci Resolve Studio 18.1 or higher, you will
have two Track FX, Voice Isolation, and the Dialogue Leveler. For this lesson, we
will focus on the Dialogue Leveler.
8 Hover over the Dialogue Leveler effect in the A2 channel strip again and click the
controls button (right) to open the Dialogue Leveler control window.
Now, let’s play a section of Philip’s track that previously required a lot of keyframes to
balance and use a Meter plug-in to see the results.
9 Add a Meter plug-in to the A2 track. Arrange the viewer, Meter, and Dialogue Leveler
controls window below the A2 track.
10 Move the playhead to end of the lime green clip in the A2 track. Zoom to your taste.
Start playback and watch the levels while listening to the playback.

It’s like magic. The levels sound nearly identical to what you achieved when
meticulously keyframing each section. Did you notice the live waveforms in the
Dialogue Leveler controls that show the waveform in blue and the processed level
changes in white? The second-to-last clip, where Philip says, “We also sustained some
hull damage, but it’s nothing critical, and now you’re here, alive, and you look just like
her” is quite impressive. The levels in this clip are all over the place, and the Dialogue
Leveler balances the levels seamlessly. Now let’s toggle the effect on and off during
playback to see and hear the before and after.
11 Start playback from the same position. This time, click the red bypass switch in the
upper left of the Dialogue Leveler to toggle the effect off and on during playback.
12 When you’re finished, stop playback and close the Meter and Dialogue Leveler
controls window.
NOTE If you’re using the Dialogue Leveler on the edit or cut pages, you’ll need
to access it through the Inspector. Also, at the time of this writing, you can add
the Dialogue Leveler to either tracks or clips in the edit and Fairlight pages, and
as clips only on the cut page. However, if the Dialogue Leveler is added to a
track in the edit or Fairlight pages, you will still hear the effect in the cut page.
You’ll work more with the Dialogue Leveler and other effects later in the book. For now, it’s
important that you understand how to edit and balance dialogue tracks and why. Mission
accomplished.

You have completed the first level of dialogue editing! But cutting the tracks together and
balancing the levels is only the first part of your job. Dialogue editing is complete when
the tracks are strong enough to stand on their own. Don’t worry, you’ll get there in the
next lesson.
Yes, mapping, splitting, trimming, and balancing dialogue levels takes time, patience, and
skill. However, because the dialogue tracks are the most important audio element in your
project, the end definitely justifies the means.
Lesson Review
1 Which right-click menu option allows you to reset all keyframes and volume level
changes applied to a group of selected clips in the timeline?
a) Clip Attributes
b) Normalize Audio
c) Remove Attributes
d) De-Leveler
2 True or false? You can use common text editing keyboard shortcuts to cut, copy, and
paste audio clips in the timeline.
3 What color is visible in a track’s meters when the levels are optimal for dialogue?
a) Yellow
b) Green
c) Red
d) Blue
4 Which new built-in effect can be used to automatically balance dialogue levels in clips
or tracks?
a) Dialogue Balancer
b) Levelinantor
c) Magic Meter
d) Dialogue Leveler
Lesson Review 227

Answers
1 c. Remove Attributes
2 True. You can use common text-editing shortcuts to cut, copy, and paste clips in the
timeline: Command-X (macOS) or Ctrl-X (Windows) to cut, Command-C (macOS) or
Ctrl-C (Windows) to copy, and Command-V (macOS) or Ctrl-V (Windows) to paste.
3 a. Optimal dialogue levels (between -15 dB and -10 dB) appear in the yellow color range
on the track meters and mixer.
4 d. Dialogue Leveler

Lesson 6
Repairing
and Replacing
Unwanted Sounds
Have you ever heard the saying, Time
“We’ll fix it in post”? Well, now it’s time This lesson takes approximately
to make good on that promise. Many 50 minutes to complete.
extraneous sounds are recorded Goals

with the dialogue during production.
Some are unavoidable, like squeaky
Exploring the Focus
dolly wheels, floor creeks when an
Mode Multi-Tool 232
actor crosses the room, and the
Reducing Plosives
crackling of clothes near the talent’s with Keyframes 238
wireless microphone.
When is the best time to fix problems Adding Fades to

in the dialogue tracks? It’s always Smooth Sound Edits 256
better to fix them sooner rather Filling Gaps with Room Tone 264
than later. As the dialogue editor, or More Room Tone Please! 273
all‑purpose sound editor, it’s up to you Lesson Review 275
to find and fix the issues in your tracks
before you pass the project on for
mixing. Whether you need to remove
noise, replace words, tame sibilance,
or patch gaping holes, sooner or later
your dialogue tracks will need one or
all of these common repair techniques.
In this lesson and Lesson 7, “Advanced Dialogue Repair,” you’ll work with many of Fairlight’s
dialogue triage tools to find and fix a wide range of problems. As you will soon discover,
sound issues are cumulative, and what might seem insignificant now will only amplify and
haunt you later when the dialogue tracks are processed and enhanced in the mix.
Chances are, if you’re new to dialogue editing, problems lurk in those tracks that you
never thought to look for or deal with until now. Rest assured, by the time you finish with
this set of dialogue repair lessons, you’ll be armed with a solid understanding of dialogue
track trouble‑shooting and which Fairlight tools you’ll need to fix issues that arise in your
own projects.
NOTE The exercises in this lesson build on the tools and skills that you learned
in previous lessons. If you skipped ahead to this lesson, you might need to review
the previous two lessons as a guide to skills and tools already covered.

So far, you’ve learned how to build soundtracks, record voiceover, and edit dialogue using
the basic tools and shortcuts necessary for most of your audio editing needs.
In this lesson, you’ll use basic and advanced editing tools to step through common real-
world dialogue issues and learn how to fix them. Let’s start by opening the first timeline
and looking at the to-do list in the Markers index.
1 Open the timeline, “6 Dialogue Repair and Replace Start.”
This is a completed version of the timeline you worked on in the previous lesson.
2 Show the Markers index in list view.
You can see the spotting list of elements to repair, fix, or replace in this timeline.
230 Lesson 6 Repairing and Replacing Unwanted Sounds

3 Right-click one of the column headers and deselect the checkboxes for Start TC, End
TC, Duration, and Keyword to hide those columns. Drag the column headers left or
right to reposition them as shown in the following figure.
4 Double-click the icon for the purple marker, titled “Plosive,” to move the playhead
to that marker.
5 Hide the Index. Hide the mixer and media pool if necessary.
The timeline is ready for action, and you have a road map in the marker index to help
you navigate from one issue to the next along the way.
NOTE The Focus mode multi-tool behavior combines many of the selection,
editing, and playback features that you’re already familiar with so that you
can continue working as you have, without the need for switching tools or
selection modes.

Exploring the Focus
Mode Multi-Tool
When it comes to editing audio quickly, there are two primary options: physical hardware
or mouse and keyboard tools. For editors who prefer physical controls with lightning-fast
results, there is the Fairlight Audio Editor and the Fairlight Desktop Console. Each model
includes dozens of specialized controls for nearly every function on the Fairlight page
interface. For mouse and keyboard editors who work fast and fluid with their mouse-du-
jour, DaVinci Resolve 18 has an improved Focus mode with a powerful multifunctional
editing tool that changes function based on where and how you click and offers a robust
array of focused pointer-based advanced editing options using simple mouse clicks and
the occasional modifier key or user-defined keyboard shortcuts.
NOTE The Focus mode multi-tool includes the Selection tool (I-beam cursor),
the Grabber tool (hand cursor), and the Trim tool (various trim arrow cursors),
depending on the cursor position.
The secret to mastering the Focus mode multi-tool is to first learn how it changes based
on where and how you click. Another consideration is whether the playhead is moving.
When stationary, playback will always start at the new edit selection whenever you press
the Spacebar. So, you can click anywhere in the timeline and instantly preview the audio
from that point without having to move the playhead. During playback, the multi-tool is
completely uncoupled from the playhead, so you can continue editing while listening to
playback or even while recording.
In the next series of exercises, you’ll explore some of the nuances of the Focus mode
multi-tool and additional Fairlight functionality available in Focus mode so that you’ll be
ready to use it in the next section.
1 Click the Focus Mode button to change the pointer to the Focus mode.

2 Click the multi-tool in any empty space in the timeline to set a single-frame
selection point.
The selection point is indicated by a flashing vertical white line and the selection tool
is the I-beam cursor. Notice that the playhead only shows in the timeline ruler directly
above the selection point.
3 Press the Spacebar to start playback from the selection point. Stop playback and start
again to see that it restarts from the selection point just like the stop and play again
feature that you used in Lesson 1.
4 Continue playback and click another empty space to set a new selection point. Press
the Spacebar twice to stop the current playback and start from the new position.
Stop playback.
5 Move the pointer over the upper half of the first clip in the A1 track and click to
set a selection point. Then zoom in horizontally to the timeline so you can clearly
see the clip.

When the multi-tool is positioned over the upper half of a clip, it is a Selection tool with
an I-beam cursor, and can be used to set a selection point or drag a selection range.
Let’s drag a selection range within the middle of the clip.
6 Drag the pointer over the upper half of the clip to drag a range.
7 Press Option-/ to play the selected range.
8 Click anywhere in the upper half of the clip to clear the selection range.
9 Double-click the upper half to mark the entire clip. Click again to deselect the clip.
As you can see, clicking the upper half of a clip with the multi-tool gives you options to
select a specific frame, range, or the whole clip.
10 Move the pointer over the lower half of the clip to change the cursor to the Grabber
tool (hand cursor).
The Grabber tool can be used for selecting and moving clips in the timeline.
11 Click the lower half once with the Grabber tool to select and mark the entire clip.
Whenever an entire clip is selected, the playhead moves to the head of the clip, which
is also where playback will start if you press the Spacebar.
12 Press the Spacebar to start playback from the beginning of the selected clip. After a
few seconds, press the Spacebar to stop playback.

13 Click any empty space in the timeline to deselect the clip.
Now that you understand the difference between clicking the upper or lower half
of a clip, you’ll continue working with the same clip as you use the multi-tool for
trimming a clip.
Using Live Preview as a Guide in Focus Mode

When working in Focus mode, the current selection takes priority over most everything
else, including the viewer. In fact, with DaVinci Resolve 18, there is even a live video preview
in the viewer whenever you drag a clip, marker, or selection range. Additionally, JKL key
navigation offers independent playhead controls with live feedback as usual in the viewer.
Seeing is believing, so let’s take a minute to test drive some of the Focus mode navigation
and live preview options.
1 If necessary, show the viewer and position it somewhere easy to see while you
manipulate clips in the upper two tracks of the timeline.
2 In the A1 track, click anywhere on the upper half of the first orange clip to set a new
edit selection point.
The viewer updates accordingly with the newly selected frame, and the selection point
is clearly marked by the red playhead in the timeline ruler.
3 Drag the pointer in the ruler above the orange clip to scrub through the clip. Notice
that the full vertical playhead appears while you drag the ruler. Stop when Emiliana’s
eyes, brows, and partial forehead are visible in the viewer.

As you just demonstrated, you can still scrub the timeline. Plus, the vertical white
selection point is still visible and flashing on the clip. There is also a white arrow in the
ruler above the edit selection to indicate its position in the ruler. If there is a playhead
and a selection point in the ruler, what happens when you press the Spacebar?
4 Press the Spacebar and play the clip. When finished, press the Spacebar again to stop.
The selection point is independent of the playhead, so playback always starts at the
selection point and returns to the selection point when you stop playback.
5 Click the A1 track header to deselect the track and selection. Drag the playhead
forward in the ruler.
The arrow in the timeline ruler still marks the position of the most recent edit selection
and will continue to control playback until you set a new edit selection. If you want to
play forward or backward from the playhead position instead of the edit selection, you
can use the J and L keys. JKL key navigation works in Focus mode to offer expanded
navigational options beyond that of the Spacebar. The difference is that J and L will
move the playhead forward or backward from its current position, while K (stop)
returns the playhead to the selection point.
6 Start playback with the L key. Press K to stop and return to the edit selection point.
Next, let’s use the live preview in the viewer to determine the Out point of a
selection range.
7 Drag a range in the upper half of the clip that starts near the beginning of the clip
and ends when Emiliana’s face is in frame. As you drag the range, use the viewer
as a guide.

For the last examples of live preview, and to finish your Edit Selection mode exploration
warmup, you’ll move a clip and a marker based on visual cues in the viewer.
8 Click the A1 track header to clear the current selection.
9 Drag the green marker toward the right to the next clip and continue dragging until
Philip (in doorway) looks toward the right.
NOTE Moving markers will always update the viewer, even in standard Pointer
mode or Range mode.
Finally, you’ll move a clip. Remember that to select and drag an entire clip, you need to
drag from the lower half of the clip.
10 Drag the first yellow clip in the A2 track toward the left until you can see both of
Emiliana’s hands onscreen. The live preview updates as you drag to show the relative
position of the clip’s In point (head) as it moves.

11 Drag the first yellow clip in the A2 track back to its original position so that it aligns
with the corresponding video clip in the V1 track.
12 Deselect the clip.
Now that you’re familiar with the multi-tool, it’s time to put it to work to repair and replace
unwanted sounds in your dialogue tracks.
NOTE These examples used random selections and movements to illustrate the
Edit Selection tool and live preview in the viewer. In the subsequent exercises, you’ll
discover for yourself how useful live preview can be for making precision selections
based on visual cues.
Reducing Plosives with Keyframes

One of the most common and easy-to-fix problems in your dialogue are the eruptions
of plosives. As mentioned in the previous lesson, plosives are “power hits” in dialogue
recordings that are usually caused by the energetic pronunciation of syllables that start
with the letters “P”, “B,” and sometimes “K” or “Ch.” Often, pop-screens are placed in front
of the microphones in studio recordings to tame those popping “Ps”. Nonetheless, they
still occur and will need to be dealt with. If not, when you mix dialogue, you’ll end up over-
processing your dialogue tracks to tighten the excessive dynamic range caused by those
plosives. Instead, by simply taming them using keyframes, the levels will fit the rest of the
track, leaving it natural sounding and needing less compression in the mix. Most plosives
can be tamed using two pairs of keyframes. Go to the purple Plosive marker, if necessary.
It marks the “plo” portion of the word “explosion” that was called out as a plosive in the
previous lesson.

1 In the A2 PHILIP track, click the upper half of the yellow clip directly beneath the purple
marker. Then zoom in to clearly see the plosives in the clip.
plosives
For this example, the first set of keyframes is already in front of the plosive. All you
need to do is add another pair.
2 Option-click the volume overlay to place a pair of keyframes just to the right of
the plosive.
Your goal is to reduce the height of the plosive by at least a third without
compromising the inflection and natural sound of the speech.

3 Drag down on the overlay between the pairs of keyframes until the waveform height
is about one third lower than the original peak. You can use the next highest peak
as a guide.
4 Drag an edit selection range that includes the entire second half of the clip.
5 Play the selection and listen to it while watching the meter in the track header.
The volume levels for most of the clip are in the yellow range, as they should be for a
balanced dialogue clip. However, one syllable at the end peaks in the red. That red in
the meter is a signal that you probably have another plosive. Let’s reduce it.

6 Drag a range over the plosive at the end of the clip.

Then, lower the volume level of the plosive until it matches the height of the other two
loudest waveform peaks in the clip.
7 Drag a range selection for the second half of the clip. Start looped playback and watch
the track meter. Lower the plosives until they no longer push the meter into red.
8 Stop looped playback and clear the play range.
That’s all there is to plosives. Find them, fix them...all good. And as you can see and hear,
by carefully lowering the plosives, the clip still retains plenty of dynamic range between its
highest and lowest levels.
As an efficient dialogue editor, you’ll get in the habit of tackling plosives as you balance
your dialogue tracks. If a vocal scream or another sound needs to jump out, let it!
Otherwise, you can retain the impact of the speech while lowering just the levels of
individual, over-enthusiastic syllables.
Selecting and Deleting Unwanted Sounds

Sometimes there are distracting sounds within a clip that need to be eliminated
altogether. Luckily, you can use the Focus mode multi-tool to select and delete unwanted
sections of clips.
In this exercise, you’ll find and remove two noises using three different methods of
extraction: dragging a selection range and using transients and shortcuts to create and
delete a range between spoken dialogue. You have already worked with some of these
tools in previous lessons, so the steps you’ll follow here will utilize many of your new skills
to perform the tasks at hand.
1 Press Shift-Z to zoom the timeline to fit horizontally.
2 Click any empty space in the A1 track to set a selection point.

Once you set a selection point, you can move it with shortcuts. In this case, you’ll move
the playhead and selection point using marker navigation shortcuts.
3 Press Shift-Down Arrow as many times as necessary to jump to the last red marker.
4 Use the zoom sliders or keyboard shortcuts to zoom in to the last clip in the A1 track.
At a glance, the clip doesn’t reveal any obvious issues.
5 Click the lower half of the clip to mark it and play the clip once. If you don’t hear
anything out of place, increase the volume level of the clip and listen to it again.
Even on spaceship sets, the sounds of helicopters, motorcycles, airplanes, and sirens
can contaminate a recording. In this case, a distant siren sound can be heard between
Emiliana’s lines. You might think that it’s barely perceivable and will eventually be
covered up by sound effects and music. Maybe...But because those other audio
choices are up to the director, it’s always best to hand over clean dialogue tracks that
play seamlessly. Plus, this happens to occur in a very intimate scene with just two
people talking in a room. No conveniently distracting sound effects sources would be
logical in that context. In fact, the director may choose to let the scene play out with
sparse, if any, musical underscoring. When you aren’t sure whether you can safely leave
a sound in your dialogue tracks, here is a rule to live by: “When in doubt, cut it out!”
Keep in mind that anytime you remove the audible room ambiance between words,
you’ll later have to replace it with room sound in a separate track. So, let’s remove the
siren and the subsequent room sound that precedes it.
6 Raise the clip’s volume curve as much as necessary to clearly hear the room and siren
sound between Emiliana’s words.
7 Using the waveform as a guide, move the playhead just before Emiliana’s first spoken
word in the last clip. (Hint: red marker.)
With the Focus mode multi-tool, you can scrub the playhead over any clip by holding
Shift-Command (macOS) or Shift-Ctrl (Windows) while you drag the pointer over the
clip. As a bonus, Shift-Command scrubbing the multi-tool temporarily solo’s the clip’s
track, so you will hear only the clip that you are scrubbing. Let’s try it on Emiliana’s clip.

8 Shift-Command scrub the playhead back and forth over the beginning of the clip to
hear the siren just before her words.
9 Set a selection point close to Emiliana’s words.
To extend the edit selection to the beginning of the clip, let’s use the right-click
shortcut menu.
10 Right-click the empty space below the clip and choose Extend Edit Selection >
To Previous Edit or press Shift-Command-L (macOS) or Shift-Ctrl-L (Windows).

11 Press Delete. Then click the empty space next to the last clip in the A1 track to clear
the range.
Just like that, the first siren is gone. Next, you’ll use the Range Selection tool to remove
the siren before Emiliana’s second phrases in this clip.
NOTE The Extend Edit Selection submenu includes the following options:
Previous Edit, Next Edit, Previous Track, and Next Track. If you look at your
computer keyboard, you’ll see that the shortcuts for these functions are
grouped together on the right side of the keyboard with the L, ‘, P, and ; keys.
The Previous and Next Edit are determined by the active Navigation options in
the Timeline Options Menu.
12 Shift-Command scrub the playhead back and forth over the section between
Emiliana’s phrases.
You probably heard a noise in the middle (visible as a small spike in the waveform)
followed by the slow return of the distant siren.
Let’s create a selection that includes both the noise and the siren. The trick to this method
is not to worry about getting it perfect. Just select as best you can to delete the unwanted
sound. You can then trim the heads and tails surrounding the gap, as necessary.
13 Drag a selection range from just before the noise to just before she speaks. Press Delete.
Now that both sirens are removed, you can return the clips to their previous volume
levels. This is a good opportunity to apply clip normalization.
14 Select both of the remaining orange clips. Right-click one of the selected clips and
choose Normalize Audio Levels.

15 Set the Reference Level to -8 and set the Set Level to Relative. Click Normalize.
16 Play the last two clips in the A1 track to hear how your edits sound. If you accidentally
clipped off any of Emiliana’s words, trim the heads or tails of the clips to recover the
full words.
Emiliana’s words in her last section of dialogue should now be free of distraction.
What Is Foley Sound?

Foley sound consists of any character-driven sound effects caused by characters
interacting with their onscreen environments. Foley sounds are named after Jack Foley, a
legendary sound editor at Universal Studios, who originally developed the technique of
recording reenactments on a stage. Foley sound replaces the original production audio for
everything from fist fights to footsteps and clothing movement.
Dipping Annoying Sounds with Keyframes

Now, you’ll move to the next red marker where you will see and hear a real-world example
of clothing crackles in one of Philip’s dialogue clips. Ideally, all the non-speaking production
sounds will be replaced with Foley sound recordings. Yes, on feature films and television
shows, even the clothing sounds are reenacted, rerecorded, and added back into the
soundtrack for sonic authenticity. Why go through all of that trouble? Because during
production, the microphone priority is on capturing dialogue and, therefore, the slightest
movement of clothing can often sound like a thundering herd of wrinkles every time a
character moves. Because this scene is from a short film, a clothing pass on the Foley
stage might not be in the budget. In that case, you must make the most of what you
have. For this project, you will see how the production sound can be salvaged with the

strategic use of keyframes. Since you already know how to set and manipulate keyframes,
this will be more of a before and after demonstration so that you can identify such issues
in your own projects and deploy keyframes as needed to reduce or remove unavoidable
distractions along the way.
In this exercise, you’ll identify the clothing crackles in a clip. Then, you’ll open another
version of the timeline to see how the crackles were tamed with keyframes. Later, at the
end of this lesson, you’ll have the opportunity to perform your own keyframe de-crackling
to the scene.
1 Go to the first red marker titled “Decrease crackling clothes.” Show the viewer and
place it in the lower third of the screen. Zoom in on the clip in the A2 track.
2 Mark and play the clip.
Can you hear the crackles? If you can hear it, chances are the audience will too,
especially in a quiet theater with powerful speakers.
As you can see, the clip already includes some keyframes applied while balancing the
clip levels. Unfortunately, while turning up Philip’s dialogue, the clothing crackles were
also intensified, so now his jumpsuit sounds like it’s made of potato chip bags.
3 Open the timeline “6a Dialogue Decrackled.”
4 If necessary, go to the first red marker. Zoom in on the clip in the A2 track.

5 Mark and play the clip.
Whew! That’s much better. The distracting crackles have been reduced, and Philip is
breathing normally in his performance. But you might have already discovered just one
major issue that remains. A big, fat crackle occurs right at the end of Philip’s crucial line.
If you already noticed the aforementioned dialogue defect and were wondering how you
might tackle it, you have the aural instincts of a dialogue editor!
Replacing Words from Outtakes

When a piece of dialogue is unusable, you have two choices. Re-record it with ADR,
or replace the line with sound from one of the scene’s outtakes. To support this process,
dialogue editors compile a list and cues for all unsalvageable dialogue. The first strategy is
to use the same line from another camera angle or take, so you’re in luck. Another take of
this scene is waiting in the media pool.
In this exercise, you’ll employ new Fairlight audio editing features to drag, drop, and
finesse the replacement dialogue in the track.
1 Show the media pool bin list. Click the Icon View button to view the bin contents in
icon view.
2 In the Hyperlight Audio bin, select the Files for Repair and Replace bin.

3 Select the A003_01020143_C006.mov clip to load it into the preview player.
4 In the preview player, change the Zoom dropdown menu to 20x.
You can now see more of the clip’s waveform in the preview player.

5 Press Home to move the playhead to the beginning of the clip. Use the JKL keys to play
through the clip and find the portion where Philip says, “You died.” Remember, Shift-L
is fast forward, and Shift-J is fast rewind. (Hint: You’ll find the line at around 17:32:01:08
in the source timecode field in the upper-right corner of the preview player.)
6 Change the Zoom dropdown menu to 30x to get a better view of the dialogue line you
want to mark.
7 Use the JKL keys to move the playhead just before the line, “You died,” and press I to
mark an In point. Move the playhead to the end of the line, and press O to mark an
Out point.
TIP When marking words or phrases, mark as close to the words as possible
for easier syncing in the timeline. You can always extend the head or tail of the
clip, if necessary, once it is in the timeline.
Did you notice that the outtakes version of the line is clean and clear, without any
annoying clothing crackles? All you need to do is prepare the timeline for the new clip.
Working in Layered Audio Editing Mode

Resolve has two audio editing modes. The default mode is Overwrite Editing mode. In
this mode, when two clips overlap in the timeline, whether by trimming or dragging clips,
the material in the lower level of that overlap is removed from the timeline. Alternatively,
in Layered Audio Editing mode, when two clips overlap, they are automatically placed on
separate audio track layers. This relocation is all done invisibly within the track until you
show audio track layers.
To try using this feature, let’s first change the timeline editing mode.

1 Choose Timeline > Layered Audio Editing to change the timeline mode.
Next, to simplify this editing process, let’s edit the new clip to the A1 track, so you
can move it down to overlap the original clip in the A2 track. For this exercise, use the
Focus mode multi-tool.
2 In the timeline, click the Focus Mode button, if necessary.
3 Scrub the playhead to the end of the phrase, “You died,” and and click an edit selection
point to use as a guide.
4 Select the A1 track, if necessary. Notice that the edit selection point moves up to the
selected track. Turn off Snapping (magnet icon) so you can freely align the new clip in
the timeline. If necessary, hide video tracks in the Timeline View Options menu.

NOTE When adding clips with linked video and audio to the timeline from
the media pool, the linked video will be edited to the video tracks if they are
showing in the Fairlight page timeline. For audio-only edits, hide the Video
Tracks in the timeline prior to adding clips from the media pool.
5 Drag the marked clip from the media pool preview player to the A1 track, but don’t
release the mouse button.
6 Drag the new clip toward the right until the tail of the clip aligns with the end of the
waveform (just before the edit point).
The clip is in place, and because it’s on a separate track, you can hear both versions of
Philip’s line at the same time during playback. Let’s start by marking the clip, so you
can initiate looped playback. Also, the clip you added is already selected, so you can
nudge it to the left or right to sync the clips.

7 Zoom in on the clips until you can clearly see the waveforms of both clips in the
timeline. Select the clip in the A1 track.
8 Start looped playback and listen to Philip’s line. The sync should be pretty close. If the
clips are noticeably out of sync, press the . (period) and , (comma) keys to nudge the
clip left or right one frame at a time until the clips sound in sync.
9 In the new clip, drag up on the volume overlay until the waveform amplitude (height) is
about the same as in the original clip.
With the clips in sync, you can now move the clip to the proper track.
10 Right-click the new clip and choose Clip Color > Green, so you can more easily
differentiate the new clip from the previous clip.
11 In the A1 track, select the lower half of the new green clip. Drag the clip down to the
A2 track. Do not release the clip yet.
Before you release the clip, you can see the semitransparent waveform of the
new clip as it overlaps the original clip’s waveform. This is why the clips become
semitransparent when you edit them! This is also the best time to use the Edit
Selection’s Grabber tool to align the waveforms into perfect sync.
NOTE If you’re using Range mode to perform this edit, you can simply use the
Cut shortcut to cut the clip and then select the A2 track and use the JKL keys to
align the semitransparent clip with the playhead before pasting.

12 Drag the clip until you are happy with the alignment of the waveforms. Focus on
aligning the visible peaked sections of the waveform that represent words or syllables.
When you’re done, release the clip. Since the clip is in an upper layer in the track, you
can select it anytime and nudge or drag it further to refine the position.
13 Clear the play range.
14 Choose View > Show Audio Track Layers and play the newly added clip.
The new clip sounds great until it ends when you hear a click from the clip that was
previously in the timeline. No problem; you’ll simply extend the new clip to cover the
click and add a fade while you’re at it.

15 Drag a wide playback range around the stacked clips. Then, while listening to playback,
extend the head and tail of the new green clip to cover up any jarring background
noise just before or after the line. Finally, add short fades at the head and tail
of the clip.
The new clip worked so well to replace the words with a clean crackle-free recording,
so why not extend the clip a bit more on each side to cover up some of the crackling
clothes as well?
16 Trim the head of the green clip toward the left before the set of five keyframes. Trim
the tail of the green clip toward the right until you don’t hear any crackling after Philip’s
replaced dialogue. Adjust the Fade In as needed.
17 When you are finished, clear the play range and turn off the Show Audio Track Layers
view option.
18 Zoom out until you can see the yellow and green clips in their entirety.

19 Play the timeline from 01:00:48:00 through 01:01:01:15. Stop playback after Philip says,
“The hyperlight core came out a few days ago.”
You’ve successfully replaced Philip’s dialogue line from an outtake. However, you might still
find it difficult to focus on the dialogue without being distracted by the fluctuations in the
background sound from clip to clip. Also, a few stray distracting sounds remain to be fixed.
NOTE If you didn’t finish all the previous steps, feel free to open the timeline “6b
Dialogue Repair Finished” now to catch up and continue.
Adding Fades to
Smooth Sound Edits
One of the most effective ways to hide audio edits from the listener’s ears is to add fades
to the head and tail (start and end) of audio clips in the timeline. This technique is very
common for checkerboard dialogue edits. As you already know, manually dragging the
fade handles to apply fades to clips is easy in DaVinci Resolve. However, imagine having
to drag short fades on the head and tail of each dialogue clip in the timeline for an entire
show. We’re talking tens of thousands of clips. That’s a lot of tedious dragging and time!
Instead, you use the Batch Fade window to customize and apply fades to all selected
clips instantly!
In this exercise, you’ll open the Batch Fade Settings window, customize the Fade In and
Fade Out settings, and then apply batch fades to all dialogue clips within a range.

1 Choose Fairlight > Batch Fade Settings to open the Bach Fade Settings window.
The Batch Fades Settings window is visually self-explanatory and has customizable
controls including fade shape and length for Fade In, Crossfade, and Fade Out
transitions. The Fade Unit dropdown menu in the upper right of the window lets you
choose between Frames or Milliseconds. Often, the fades added to dialogue clips,
often called “micro-fades,” are very short so they don’t interfere with any of the spoken
words within the clips. For this exercise, you’ll create 15-frame fades and apply them
to a range of clips—just to see it work. Then you’ll create “micro-fades” that are only
30 milliseconds and overwrite the previously applied fades.

2 In the Fade In control area, click the switch to the left of Fade In to enable that type of
batch fade.
3 Enable the Fade Out controls.
4 Set the Length for the Fade In and Fade Out to 15 frames. Keep the default linear fade
shape (diagonal line).
5 With the Focus mode multi-tool, Select the A3 ADA TEST VOICE track.
6 Press Command-A (macOS) or Ctrl-A (Windows) to set a range for the entire timeline
that includes only the clips on the selected track.

7 In the Batch Fade Settings window, click Apply.
The Bach Fade Settings window closes, and all the clips in the A3 track have 15-frame
fades. These fades are far too long to be useful on dialogue clips, but they are easy to
see and demonstrate the Batch Fade functionality in the Fairlight page. Now, let’s do it
again with micro-fades to overwrite these exaggerated ones.
NOTE Range selections only affect clips on selected tracks and can be created
with either the Range tool or Focus mode multi-tool.
8 Open the Batch Fades Settings window. Change the Fade Unit to Milliseconds. Set the
length for both Fade In and Fade Out to 30. Check the Overwrite Existing option for
both fades. Select all the clips in the A3 track, if necessary. Click Apply.

Wait? What happened to the fades? No worries; they are there, but they are less than a
third of a frame in length, so you have to look closer.
9 Zoom in on one of the clips until you see the fades.
Now that you know how to customize and apply batch fades, you can apply them to
one clip, a group of selected clips, or all the dialogue clips at once. Let’s modify the
batch fades one more time and apply them to a selection of clips on different tracks.
10 Open the Batch Fades Settings window. Change the Fade Unit to Frames. Set the
Length for the Fade In and Fade Out to 5. Press Esc (escape) to close the window.
11 With either the Range tool or Focus mode multi-tool, drag a range that includes the
dialogue clips on the first half of the timeline. Do not include the Green clip in the A2
PHILIP track.

12 Choose Fairlight > Apply Batch Fades.
Well done! All the selected audio clips have been enhanced with five-frame fades. There’s
just one problem… You’ve inadvertently placed a fade out next to a fade in on two adjacent
non-dialogue clips, thus causing a potentially noticeable drop in level. That can be fixed by
using a crossfade instead.
Applying Crossfades to Adjacent Clips

Short fades work great to smooth clips that aren’t touching other clips, such as dialogue
clips in a checkerboard edit. When two clips are side-by-side and touching, or have a short
gap between them, you might want to use a crossfade as a seamless transition from one
clip to another. In this exercise, you’ll remove the fades between the first two yellow clips
on the A2 track and add a crossfade between them instead. Along the way, you’ll review
some of your new skills.
1 Clear the current selection and press A for Pointer mode.

2 Move the playhead between the first two yellow clips on the A2 track and zoom in
horizontally for a clear view of the two clips.
3 With the Focus mode multi-tool, click the lower half of the first clip to select it, and
then Shift-click the second clip.
4 Drag the clip gain line upward on either of selected clips to increase the level of both at
the same time.
NOTE When working with selected clips in a range, any clip gain changes you
make to one clip will affect them all relatively. So, a 5 dB increase will raise the
gain line for all the clips by 5 dB from whatever their individual levels were prior
to the range selection.
5 Play the selection to hear where the level dips between the first and second clips.
Chances are, you could hear the obvious and potentially distracting transition between
clips because of the use of fades. Next, you’ll clear the fades and use a crossfade
instead. You could drag the Fade handles to remove the fades, and then add a
crossfade. Or, you can just add a crossfade, and it will override the initial fades with a
single click. Let’s do that. You could use any of the tools for this maneuver, but let’s use
the Focus mode multi-tool.

6 Move the multi-tool over the edit point between the first and second clips. When the
cursor changes to a trim cursor, right-click and choose “Add 12 frame Cross Fade 0 dB.”
7 Play the track and listen to the seamless transition between clips. Double-click the clip
gain line on the two selected clips to reset them.
NOTE Crossfades can be edited in the timeline, including the following edits:
drag the edges to resize, drag the lower half to reposition, drag the handle in
the middle to change the curve, or select and delete the crossfade. Another
option for creating a crossfade is to draw a range between two clips, and then
choose Trim > Crossfade Selection. You can also apply batch crossfades to a
range of clips simultaneously.
You have successfully worked with batch fades and crossfades between clips. Next, you’ll
patch some gaps in the tracks with room tone.

Filling Gaps with Room Tone
Nothing screams “amateur video” more than hearing background sound change between
every cut, or worse, plunging into a black hole of silence between dialogue lines. In
dialogue tracks, silence is deadly! Unless your scene takes place in the vacuum of space,
actual silence should never be present in your soundtrack.
You might think, why not just cover up the silence with tracks of sound effects and
ambience? But that’s like throwing an artificial shadow across a character’s face to hide the
fact that you didn’t color correct the flesh tones. Remember, the dialogue tracks are the
most important elements in your soundtrack, so you should treat them as such.
The acoustic solution to filling the gaps and making dialogue sound seamless is room
tone, which is the “silence” recorded on the set at the end of a scene to match the “silence”
between spoken words. As those quotation marks suggest, room tone silence isn’t really
silent. Even soundstages designed for optimal sound recording have some ambient sound.
The room tone is usually recorded at the end of each scene by the location sound mixer
who recorded the original dialogue. However, because you lack a recorded room tone
for your current scene, you’ll need to find some room tone in the existing dialogue clips.
Once you find a usable piece of room tone, you can either copy and paste it beneath each
gap to patch the holes or stitch it together to make a long bed of room tone that you can
apply consistently throughout the track. For this lesson, you’ll use the latter method, which
requires some new skills.
NOTE Patching room tone clips to plug gaps between dialogue clips is as easy as
applying a bandage to a wound. You just need to cover the gap (from a separate
track of course) and extend the clip a little on each side to overlap and apply fades
to the overlapping edges to hide the edits.
1 Open the timeline 6c Room Sound For Stitching
2 Zoom in on the clip in the A4 ROOM track.
3 Mark the clip and start looped playback. After a few repetitions, stop playback.
This is the Room Tone clip you will stitch together to make a longer bed of sound. Looped
playback isn’t a great indicator of how it will play if placed back-to-back in a track. You’ll get
a chance to try that shortly.

Finding Usable Room Tone in the Timeline
When you need to create your own room tone from material already in a track, here are
some basic guidelines to follow:
— Find the longest section of existing room tone in the scene.

— Copy and paste the content you want to test into a separate track.
— Raise the volume during the test to more easily detect any subtle noises within the clip.
— Narrow down your choice to the cleanest portion, or, as in this case, the room tone
section with the fewest additional sounds.
— Test the tone by listening to it looped. Remove any audible elements at the head or tail
that could give away the repetition.
What Is a “Bed” track?

The term bed in audio post-production refers to an all-purpose filler track that
runs underneath other audio tracks. Whether a bed track is music, ambient sound,
or room tone, the purpose is to fill the audible void between clips and help sell the
overall scene.
Stitching Room Tone into a Bed

Stitching room tone is exactly what it sounds like. You take short pieces of room tone and
stitch them together to form a seamless “fabric” of audio. Along the way, you’ll use new
features in combination to duplicate and reverse a selection.
In this exercise, you’ll perform two easy methods of stitching together a bed of room tone
based on the clip selection in the A4 ROOM track. First, you’ll select and duplicate the clip
back to back several times to hear how it sounds repeated over and over. Then you’ll try a
front/back fill where you reverse every other clip for a more seamless playback experience.

1 Select the lower half of the clip in the A4 track with the multi-tool and drag it to the
beginning of the timeline.
2 Select the clip, if necessary, and choose Edit > Duplicate Selection or press Shift-
Command-D (macOS), Shift-Ctrl-D (Windows).
3 Repeat step 2 until you have stitched together six identical clips back to back in
the A4 track.
4 Play the clips.
Were you able to hear each time the clips repeated? If so, the audience probably will
too. If your stitched clips play back seamlessly, congratulations, it’s a lucky break.
Sometimes, reversing every other clip will make the repetition between clips less
discernable. With DaVinci Resolve 18, you can reverse an audio clip in the right-click
contextual menu.
Let’s make another set of six clips to test reversing some of the clips.

5 With the multi-tool, select the first clip and then Shift-click the last clip to select
them all.
6 Press Shift-Command-D (macOS) or Shift-Ctrl-D (Windows) to duplicate the selected

clips. Drag the duplicated clips toward the right to separate the two sets of clips.
7 In the first set of clips in the A4 track, select the second clip. Then Command-click
(macOS) or Ctrl-click (Windows) the fourth and sixth clips.
8 Right-click one of the selected clips and choose Reverse Clip.
9 Clear the selection and play the clips from the beginning.
Hopefully, you just witnessed the magic of the front/back fill technique to create
seamless room tone beds. Of course, so far, we have created only 6 seconds of
stitched room tone. Time for some additional duplication and stitching.
Before moving on, let’s also try applying batch crossfades to the second set of clips
and then listen to both sets for comparison.
10 Select the second set of clips.
11 Open the Batch Fades Settings window. Click the Reset button in the upper-right
corner of the window.

12 Enable Crossfade and keep the default crossfade settings. Click Apply.
The second set of clips have short 2-frame crossfades.
13 Play the second set of clips.
What did you think? In this example, the short crossfades don’t sound as seamless as the
front/back fill. Feel free to experiment with different crossfade lengths and settings
to get a better result later. For now, let’s make a bed out of the first set of clips.
14 Select and delete the second set of clips.
15 Select the set of clips in the A4 track.
16 Press Shift-Command-D (macOS) or Shift-Ctrl-D (Windows) to duplicate the

selected clips.

17 Repeat steps 8 and 9 two more times until you have about a minute of stitched
room tone.
You’ve finished stitching the clips. Let’s reset the track levels.
18 Select all the clips in the A4 track, if necessary. Right-click any of the selected clips and
choose > Remove Attributes. Check the Volume attribute and then click Apply. Deselect
the clips.
The levels have been returned to their original settings.
Bouncing a Selection to a New Layer

The room tone clips that you stitched together work fine; however, they will become a
bit cumbersome to move around and work with later in the scene. Fortunately, you can
simplify that process by bouncing the clips to a new layer.
Bouncing is the audio equivalent to flattening a layered image or rendering a composite

video. In this case, bouncing creates a new audio file in your capture location and media
pool. In the Fairlight page, you can bounce a selected play range to a new layer or bounce
your output to a new track in the timeline. For this exercise, you’ll set a range around the
clips in the A4 track and bounce them to a new layer.

Just as with audio recordings, your bounced files will appear in the selected bin in the
media pool.
1 In the media pool, select the Files for Repair and Replace bin.
2 In the A4 track, select the first clip, and then Shift-select the last clip to mark a range
for all the clips.
The timecode display indicates that the duration of the play range is a little over a
minute. That is a respectable length of room tone to work with. The trouble is, it’s still
in little pieces. Your goal is to create one long and seamless piece of room tone based
on the clips in the A4 track.

3 Make sure that the A4 track is selected and that you have marked a range. This is a
necessary step for bouncing to a new layer in the same track.
4 Choose Timeline > Bounce Selected Tracks to New Layer.
Voila! A new bounced clip the length of the play range appears above the other clips in
the selected track. The source clip is also visible in the selected bin in the media pool.
The bounced clip’s name starts with the track name ROOM, continues with “bounce” to
indicate that it is a bounced file, and is followed by the current date.

5 Choose View > Show Audio Track Layers to see the bounced clip in a layer above the
original clips.
At this point, you can keep the original stitched clips in the timeline beneath the
bounced layer, disable them, or delete them from the track. There is even a new
timeline menu option to Flatten Audio Track layers. For educational purposes, and to
preserve any sentimental attachment you might have to your first stitched patchwork
room tone track, let’s keep it and make a new version of the timeline with the stitched
clips deleted to finish the job.
6 In the media pool Lesson 06 bin, right-click your current timeline and choose >
Duplicate Timeline.
7 Name the duplicate timeline 6 Dialogue with Room Tone and open that version of the
timeline, if necessary.
Now you can flatten the audio track layers of the selected track. You can do this
anytime, even if the audio track layers aren’t showing.
8 Select the A4 track, if necessary, and then choose Timeline > Flatten Audio
Track Layers.
9 Choose View > Show Audio Track Layers to hide the audio track layers.
Now that you have one solid piece of room tone to work with, you can direct your
collective skills toward finishing the ROOM track.
NOTE The Fairlight Audio Editor includes two options for automatically generating
room tone or room ambience to fill a selected range. These options are Fill and
Back/Front Fill and generate a new bounced clip for the duration of a marked
range, based on the audio currently in the clipboard. You can learn more about
working with the Fairlight Audio Editor to control the Fairlight page in the
DaVinci Resolve Reference Manual available under the Help menu.

More Room Tone Please!
In this exercise, you’ll work on your own to complete the room tone track. The big-picture
goal is “wall-to-wall tone for the entire scene.” So, you will need to copy and paste the
bounced clip to extend from the first to the last frame of the scene. You can duplicate the
bounced clip or copy and paste.
When you have the clips in position, you’ll need to set the volume level based on the room
sound already in the scene. Using the mixer and Philip’s first dialogue clip as guides,
determine an appropriate volume level for the room tone before his first line. (Hint: Solo
Philip’s track, set a play range for the room sound in Philip’s clip, and in the mixer, watch
the meter for the A2 track to determine the average level.)
When you know the target volume level for the room tone, set the room tone of all the
copied clips to match that level. (If you aren’t sure what level to aim for, try using -45 dB in
the mixer as a guide.) Clip Normalization will not work here because it is based on peaks
and goes only as low as -30.
Once you finish building out the room tone track, listen to the timeline to hear how it
sounds overall. Feel free to add short fades to the beginning and end of the dialogue clips.
More Room Tone Please! 273

The scene has come a long way. It isn’t perfect, but it’s darn close. Did anything jump
out at you and make you want to stop playback and fix it? Specifically, did you notice the
creak (either the floor or the table) when Philip shifted his weight before he says, “The
hyperlight core”?
At this point, any time you hear something distracting that needs fixing in the dialogue
tracks, fix it! Pay special attention to sounds that could be cut out or trimmed away.
You’ve completed the dialogue editing and clean-up for this specific scene. Whether you
found the experience fun, challenging, or tedious, it’s all a necessary part of creating
professional-sounding dialogue tracks.  Coming up next, you’ll explore additional tools,
plug-ins, and techniques for troubleshooting and enhancing dialogue tracks.
NOTE If you didn’t complete all the steps and would like to hear an example of the
finished scene, open and play the timeline, “6d Dialogue Tracks Finished.”

Lesson Review
1 Where can you see all your timeline markers and use them as a spotting list? (Choose
all that apply.)
a) Metadata
b) Media pool
c) Timeline dropdown menu
d) Index
e) Sound Library Marker list
2 Which tool allows you to drag a range in the timeline? (Choose all that apply.)
a) Selection tool
b) Range Selection tool
c) Razor tool
d) Edit Selection tool
3 Which tool can you use to reduce plosives in dialogue tracks?

a) De-ploser plug-in
b) Ex-plosive plug-in
c) De-Esser plug-in
d) Gate
e) Keyframes
4 What tool is useful for selecting and deleting specific portions of a clip?
a) Edit Selection tool
b) Overwrite tool
c) Lift tool
d) Insert Gap tool
5 True or false? To create a seamless track of room tone, you can record tone from
the built-in Oscillator.
6 True or false? Loop Jog uses In and Out points in the timeline to loop playback.
Lesson Review 275

Answers
1 d
2 b, d
3 e
4 a
5 False
6 False

Lesson 7
Advanced
Dialogue Repair
In the previous lesson, you focused Time

on basic dialogue track repairs, This lesson takes approximately
word replacement, and room tone. 40 minutes to complete.
In this lesson, you’ll tackle other Goals

common dialogue issues, including
Finding the Problem 278
powerline hum, noisy clips, and
Repairing Dialogue with
sibilance. These types of issues require
Fairlight FX Plug-Ins 279
additional tools such as Fairlight
FX repair plug-ins, Track FX, clip
Testing Your New Dialogue
equalization, and dynamics processing.
Repair Skills in a Real-World Clip 305
Dealing with Processor

Intensive Plug‑Ins 308
Repairing Dialogue with Voice

Isolation (Studio Version Only) 310
Removing Clicks at
the Sample Level 318
Retiming Audio with

Elastic Wave Time Controls 325
Lesson Review 332

Finding the Problem
First, let’s open and examine the timeline that was created for these examples.
1 Open the timeline, 7 Repairs and Fairlight FX. Close all open panels including
the viewer.
This timeline includes six clips in five separate tracks. Each clip has temporarily been
disabled. Also, tracks A2 through A5 contain versions of the same clip.
2 Select the first clip in the A1 track and press D.
The clip is enabled and ready for playback.
3 Play the first few seconds of the clip.
A clear background hum contaminates the entire clip. This problem is fairly common and
can have several causes, including poor audio cable shielding, incorrect power grounding,
or when haphazardly overlapping audio cables and power cables on the set. This hum
can’t be removed with keyframes or editing. Instead, you’ll employ one of Resolve’s
powerful new Fairlight FX repair plug-ins.
NOTE Power cables and audio cables can coexist when recording as long as
they run parallel to each other and cross at perpendicular angles.
278 Lesson 7 Advanced Dialogue Repair

Repairing Dialogue with
Fairlight FX Plug-Ins
DaVinci Resolve 18 includes a full set of built-in Fairlight FX plug-ins, along with support for
third-party macOS Audio Unit plug-ins. DaVinci Resolve Studio extends support to third-
party VST plug-ins.
In Lesson 1, you applied an Echo plug-in to a music clip. In the next series of exercises,
you’ll work with three powerful Fairlight FX repair plug-ins, including the De-Hummer,
Noise Reduction, and the De-Esser. Plug-ins can be applied to clips, tracks, or busses. You’ll
work more with track- and bus-level FX and processing in Lesson Lesson 10, “Sweetening
the Mix.” For now, you’ll focus on applying plug-ins to specific clips.
1 Show the Effects Library.
The Fairlight FX plug-ins appear at the top of the Audio FX list.

2 In the Fairlight FX list, drag the De-Hummer plug-in onto the first clip in the A1 track.
The De-Hummer dialog opens with controls to specify the type of hum in the clip.
You don’t have to be a hum expert to determine the frequency. Chances are, it’s a
powerline hum. If so, it will have a 60-Hz frequency in America or 50 Hz in other parts
of the world.
The graph display across the bottom displays low frequencies to the left and high
frequencies to the right. The purple notches in the graph indicate which frequencies
are currently reduced. The default De-Hummer setting is for a fundamental frequency
of 50 Hz followed by harmonic frequencies. Harmonics are naturally occurring
multiples of the fundamental frequency, often called overtones. These harmonic
frequencies give sound it’s added color and character. However, when it comes to
annoying hum contaminating your dialogue, you’ll probably want to eliminate the
fundamental and the harmonic frequencies. Luckily, the Fairlight FX De-Hummer does
most of the work for you.
Notice that the controls in the lower left of the De-Hummer include presets for 50 Hz
and 60 Hz.
3 In the Frequency section, click the 60 Hz button to set the De-Hummer to notch out
the 60 Hz frequency.

The notch filters (purple notches) shift toward the right so that the deepest notch
(fundamental) is now 60 Hz, and the ensuing harmonics have shifted accordingly.
NOTE When you’re working with a hum that is not at 50 Hz or 60 Hz, you can
click the Variable setting and adjust the Frequency dial until you reduce the
correct frequency.
4 Mark the clip, and start looped playback.
5 While listening to playback, drag the Amount dial to increase the amount of the
frequency that is removed. Drag until you no longer hear the hum.
You can control the slope of the harmonics, also referred to as the bias, with the Slope
dial. Depending on the dominant overtones, you might need to use the Slope dial to
shift the slope toward higher frequencies. You can also tweak the slope to remove
the harmonics while retaining the fundamental frequency.

6 Drag the Slope dial slightly toward the right to strengthen the different harmonic
notch filters and until you hear the least amount of hum during playback.
Each Fairlight FX plug-in includes a Bypass switch to turn a plug-in off or on. Bypass
switches are a quick way to hear a clip with and without the plug-in applied. Let’s
use the Bypass switch to toggle off and on the plug-in to hear the before and after
versions of the clip. The Bypass switch is red when the filter is turned on.
Plug-in on Plug-in off
7 In the upper-left corner of the De-Hummer dialog, click the red Bypass switch to turn
the plug-in off. Continue playback and then turn the plug-in on.
8 When you’re finished removing the hum, stop playback. Close the De-Hummer dialog.
Now that you’ve seen and heard the power of a single Fairlight FX De-Hummer plug-in,
let’s try a more challenging clip.

Applying Multiple Plug-Ins
for Cumulative Results
So far, the De-Hummer plug-in has worked great for eliminating a moderate hum in the
dialogue clip. However, sometimes you’ll encounter much more prominent issues that
require multiple plug-ins to repair. In this exercise, you’ll work with the same clip, but this
time the hum is louder.
1 Select the second clip in the A1 track, and press D to enable the clip.
At a glance, you can clearly see that something is wrong with this waveform. Any
time you see a really thick center in a waveform, it indicates a constant and fairly
loud sound.
TIP If you ever encounter a noisy-looking clip like this in your own projects,
protect your ears before listening. In other words, DIM playback or move your
headphones from directly over your ears before you listen.
2 Listen to a few seconds of the clip to hear the excessive hum.
3 In the Fairlight FX list, drag the De-Hummer plug-in onto the second clip in the
A1 track.
4 In the Frequency section, click the 60 Hz button to set the De-Hummer to notch out
the 60 Hz frequency.
5 Mark the clip and start looped playback. While listening to playback, drag the Amount
dial to increase the amount of the frequency that is removed. Stop playback.
Unfortunately, increasing the Amount dial to the full -30 is not enough.

6 Drag another De-Hummer plug-in onto the clip. The dialog for the second plug-in
opens above the first dialog.
If you look closely at the top of the De-Hummer dialog, you’ll see (2 of 2) after the clip
name in the dialog header, indicating that the dialog is for the second of two plug-ins
in order of processing.
7 Drag the header at the top of the (2 of 2) De-Hummer plug-in toward the right to move
it away from the first De-Hummer dialog. Position the plug-in dialogs so that you can
easily see them both during playback.
8 On the second De-Hummer dialog, click the 60 Hz button.
9 Start looped playback. Lower the amount on the first De-Hummer to -20.
10 Slowly increase the Amount on the second dialog until the hum is completely gone.
Around -20 should do the trick.
11 When you are satisfied, close both dialogs and stop playback.

Now you have firsthand experience working with Resolve’s powerful De-Hummer plug-in.
Keep in mind this was an extreme example created for this exercise. In most cases, a
hum will be less pronounced and easier to eliminate. The takeaway from this exercise
is that this plug-in is highly effective and easy to apply to your timeline clips as needed.
Reducing Noise
Noise comes in many shapes, sizes, and intensities. Whether it’s music, background
conversation, the roar of a sports car, or purr of a kitten, anything may be considered
noise when it contaminates the clarity of your dialogue tracks.
When applying noise reduction, you can sometimes reduce the noise easily, and sometimes
you need to reduce it incrementally with multiple plug-ins and processes. In this exercise,
you’ll encounter a more tenacious noise than the simple hum you removed in the previous
exercise. This time, you’ll use a new plug-in with the goal of achieving noise reduction. Why
not noise removal? Because in many cases, noise covers a lot of territory and frequencies
and attempting to remove it entirely may strip your dialogue of its tone and texture.
Let’s start by listening to the clip in the A2 track to determine the type and intensity of
the noise.
1 Select the clip in the A2 track and press D to enable the clip.
2 Mark the clip and start looped playback.
This clip is one of the outtakes from the voiceover recordings in Lesson 2. The noise
you hear is very common and can be caused by poor connections, damaged cables, or
weak microphone batteries.
Regardless of how the noise “invaded” this recording, it’s there. So, you’ll deal with it
using the Fairlight FX Noise Reduction plug-in in the Effects Library.

3 Stop playback.
4 In the Fairlight FX list, drag the Noise Reduction plug-in onto the clip in the A2 track.
The Noise Reduction dialog opens with a variety of controls, including a graph that
shows the spectral analysis of the frequency (Hz) and the strength (dB) of the signal
during playback. Detection, Smoothing, and Output controls are also present across
the bottom of the dialog.
The Fairlight FX Noise Reduction plug-in is based on spectral subtraction and can be
set to automatically detect noise in selected sections of dialogue or to manually learn a
selected section of noise and then extract that noise print from the signal.
The two mode buttons below the graph are for selecting Manual mode or Auto Speech
mode. Manual mode learns a “noise print” and extracts it from the overall signal. Auto
Speech mode uses powerful algorithms and spectral analysis to detect and extract
speech from the signal, thereby reducing the noise.
Let’s try both methods, starting with the default Manual mode. First, you need to set a
play range to isolate a section of the noise.

5 Mark a play range from the beginning of the clip to just before the first speech
waveform. Also, since the noise level is pretty low in this clip, raise the volume level of
the selection until you can clearly see the noise waveform on the clip.
6 Click the Learn button to create a noise profile during playback. Start playback of the
noise-only portion of the clip.

In Manual mode, the purple overlay in the spectral analysis shows the noise profile
that’s targeted for subtraction from the signal. The noise profile continues to update
during playback until you click the Learn button again.
7 Click the Learn button again to save the current noise profile.
The learned noise profile is subtracted from the rest of the clip’s signal
during playback.
8 Stop looped playback. Select and mark the entire clip in the A2 track.
9 In the Inspector, click the Reset button for the Volume level.
The Volume reset in the Inspector is a handy way to remove all keyframes and
level changes on a clip. The Inspector includes reset buttons for all the different
parameter controls.
10 Increase the clip volume level in the Inspector or clip gain line until the waveform
height matches the clips below (around 6 dB).
11 Start looped playback again to hear the clip with the noise print subtracted. Click the
Bypass button off and on to hear the clip without and with the Noise Reduction plug-in
applied. When you’re finished, stop playback and close the Noise Reduction dialog.
Just like that. The noise is gone. Let’s try it again in Auto Speech mode on the clip in
track A3.

NOTE You can click the Reset button in the upper-right corner of the plug-in
dialog to return a plug-in to its default settings. You can also reset just the
noise profile in the Noise Reduction preset menu. For this example, you’ll use
a separate clip for comparison.
12 Mute the A2 track and select the clip in the A3 Auto Speech Mode track. Press D.
13 In the Effects Library, drag the Noise Reduction plug-in onto the clip in the A3 track.
14 In the Noise Reduction dialog, click the Auto Speech mode control. Start looped playback.

Once again, the noise disappears while the spoken words remain. This time, in the fifth
dialogue phrase, you’ll notice a slight audible dip in the word “discrepancy.” You can
use the Detection controls to fine-tune the noise reduction. In this case, let’s increase
the Attack time from +1.4 milliseconds to +173.7 milliseconds.
The Attack control is used primarily in Auto Speech mode and controls the duration
of the detection time of the noise profile. A slower attack time (lower value) updates
the noise profile more quickly and is best applied to noise that varies quickly. A faster
attack time (higher value) updates the noise profile more slowly and is better for a
consistent noise, as in this clip.
15 Set a play range around the fifth phrase in the clip. Start playback of the phrase.
16 Drag the Attack dial to the right to increase the attack speed to around
+173 milliseconds.
Changing the attack value helped. If needed, you can always balance the levels of the
individual words using keyframes.

17 Stop playback. Close the Noise Reduction dialog. Clear the play range. Mute
the A3 track.
You’ve witnessed the power of Resolve’s Noise Reduction plug-in. In the next exercise,
you’ll apply multiple plug-ins to the same clip to reduce a more prominent noise.
MORE INFO You can find detailed information on each Fairlight FX plug-in and
its specific controls in the DaVinci Resolve 18 manual available in the application’s
Help menu.
Combining Manual and Auto Speech

Modes with Multiple Plug-Ins
In the previous examples, the Noise Reduction plug-in has worked well for eliminating
a slight noise in the voiceover clip. However, sometimes you’ll encounter much more
prominent noise issues such as the din of crowd noise or the constant cacophony of traffic.
When that happens, rather than tackle all the noise at once at the potential expense of
your dialogue, you may need to use multiple plug-ins to reduce noise incrementally. In this
exercise, you’ll work with the same clip, but this time the noise is much louder.
1 Select and enable the clip in the A4 track.
At a glance, you can see a fairly strong signal between the dialogue phrases.
This usually suggests a steady background sound and is rarely a good thing in a
dialogue clip.
2 Mark the clip, and start looped playback.
Wait, where is the noise? If you look at the clip in the A4 More Noise track more closely,
you’ll see an fx icon before the clip’s name, which indicates that FX plug-ins have
already been applied to it.

3 Show the Inspector Effects panel.
Here, in the Audio Effects panel, you’ll see two Noise Reduction plug-ins applied to the
clip. Effects processing works from the top down, so whichever plug-in is highest in
the list is applied first. The second plug-in is applied to the results of the first plug-in,
and so on.
4 In the Inspector, click the Bypass buttons on both Noise Reduction plug-ins to turn
them off. Continue playback.
Now you can hear the noise.
5 Click the Custom button for the first Noise Reduction plug-in to show the plug-in’s
control dialog.

Based on the settings, you can see that this Noise Reduction plug-in is using a noise
print in Manual mode to reduce the noise. Also, the Threshold setting is set higher
(-29.6) to accommodate a louder noise floor.
6 Turn on the plug-in and listen to the difference it makes in the noise level.
7 Show the controls dialog for the second plug-in and turn it on.

The second plug-in is using Auto Speech mode to clean up the remaining noise left by
the first plug-in. Looking at the plug-in parameters in the Inspector, you’ll see a Noise
Only checkbox that corresponds to the “Listen to noise only” checkbox in the upper-
right corner of the Noise Reduction window. This mode is like inverting a key when you
are compositing an image, but applied to noise reduction. It lets you monitor the part
of the signal that is being removed. Let’s listen to the first Noise Reduction plug-in in
Noise Only mode.
8 In the Inspector, turn off the second Noise Reduction plug-in.
9 Start playback. In the Inspector, select the Noise Only checkbox for the first Noise
Reduction plug-in.
The corresponding “Listen to noise only” checkbox on the Noise Reduction window is
automatically selected.
You now hear only the part of the signal that is being removed, which includes some of
the dialogue frequencies. If you can clearly make out vocal patterns or words in Noise
Only mode, those same frequencies and tonal elements are being stripped from the
dialogue. When finessing noise reduction controls, it’s always a good idea to listen to
noise reduction in Noise Only mode to make sure you aren’t excessively diminishing
the vocals. Remember, it may be better to stack multiple noise reduction filters instead
of being too heavy-handed with just one.
10 Deselect the “Listen to noise only” checkbox on the Noise Reduction window. Turn on
the second noise reduction plug-in.

11 Close both plug-in dialogs and stop playback.
The more you work with noise reduction, the easier it gets. The goal in this lesson
is to understand which repair plug-ins are available in DaVinci Resolve 18, whether
they work alone or in combination in Manual or Auto Speech modes.
Next, you’ll work with the last repair plug-in to deal with another very common
dialogue problem.
What Does a Dialogue Mixer Do?

In audio post-production, a dialogue mixer focuses on delivering great-sounding dialogue
tracks at optimal levels to add to the rest of the mix. In doing so, dialogue mixers take the
edited dialogue tracks to the next level by introducing compression to narrow the dynamic
range, as well as attenuate (reduce) detracting frequencies while boosting frequencies that
enhance the clarity of each voice.
Identifying Sibilance
Two of the most common issues that occur in dialogue recordings are plosives and
excessive sibilance. You already know how to spot and tame plosives using keyframes.
Vocal sibilance, on the other hand, is generated by breathy, consonant sounds such as
S, T, Z, Sh, and Ch, and results in an unpleasant tonal harshness in the upper midrange
frequencies between 4 kHz and 8 kHz.
The type of microphone used for recording and the proximity of the microphone to the
subject contribute to sibilance, as well as the amount of air movement and power required
to produce sibilant sounds. Phrases like “excessive esses” and “she sells seashells by the
seashore” are sure to increase the vocal sibilance levels in nearly any recording.
Some spirited debate continues among dialogue mixers regarding when the best time is to
de-ess dialogue. Some believe it should be after compression and during the mixing stage.
Others believe all equalization should be done before compression, and so the debate
continues. While dialogue mixers may disagree on the order and methods of processing
and equalizing tracks, they have the same singular goal in mind: to deliver the best-
sounding dialogue tracks.
In the next few exercises, you’ll cross the boundary between dialogue editing and dialogue
mixing to explore sibilance and the ever-present esses. Let’s start by listening to some
sibilant-rich dialogue.

NOTE If you didn’t complete all the previous noise reduction exercises, open the
timeline, “7a Reduced Noise,” to catch up and continue.
1 Unmute the A2 track. Make sure that all the other tracks are muted.
2 Mark a play range around the fifth phrase in the A2 track, “I cannot explain this
discrepancy.”
3 Play the phrase several times to determine if you can hear the sibilance.
If you are new to dialogue editing and mixing, the first thing you need to do is
recognize excessive sibilance. Once you know what you’re listening for, you’ll notice it
everywhere, and more importantly, you’ll know how to reduce it in your own projects.
The best way to pinpoint irritating frequencies is to boost and sweep a bell curve
to find them. Let’s use the 4-band parametric equalizer in the Inspector to find and
increase the sibilant range to more easily identify it.
4 Select the clip in the A2 track, if necessary, to show it in the Inspector.
5 In the Inspector, turn on the Equalizer.
Frequency
Gain
Graphical EQ controls
Band enable button

Band filter type
Numeric controls
In the graphical EQ controls area, you can see and manipulate the frequency graph.
The numerical controls at the bottom of the equalizer give you more precise control
over the frequencies and gain of each band.

If you look more closely at the blue graph, you can see that the default setting
resembles a clip with fade handles applied to the head and tail. The steep slope at
the left edge of the curve is actually a high-pass filter that allows high frequencies to
be heard while eliminating the lowest frequencies. The slope on the right side of the
curve is a low-pass filter that allows lower frequencies to be heard while eliminating
the highest frequencies. (In the next exercise, you’ll apply both the high- and low-pass
filters to alter the recorded voice in a clip.)
For now, let’s use the Band 3 control, which is in the same frequency range as
the sibilance.
NOTE You’ll work more extensively with equalization in Lesson 10.
6 Click the band filter type dropdown menu below the Band 3 button to see the types of
frequency filters available for bands 2 and 3.
Low-shelf filter
Bell cure filter
Notch filter
High-shelf filter
High- and low-shelf filters are similar to high- and low-pass filters, but the shelf
filters attenuate (lower) unwanted frequencies, whereas the pass filters completely
block unwanted frequencies. You can apply bell-curve filters to boost or attenuate
frequencies anywhere on the graph and narrow or widen their range of influence
using the Q control. A notch filter is used for completely removing, or cutting,
specific frequencies.
For this exercise, you’ll sweep a midrange frequency bell curve in Band 3 to boost
or attenuate frequencies during playback and isolate the talent’s voice. Let’s start
by turning off all the bands except for Band 3. Then, you’ll sweep the bell curve to
evaluate the radio dispatcher’s recorded voice.
NOTE During playback, dragging the graphical controls left or right through
the EQ graph is referred to as sweeping and is the most effective way to hear
changes and identify areas that need work.

7 In the Equalizer controls, click the red band enable buttons for Bands 1, 2, and 4
to turn them off.
NOTE Clip equalization in the Fairlight page adjusts the tonal quality of
individual clips, whereas track equalization in the mixer adjusts the entire track.
8 Start looped playback. During looped playback, drag the Band 3 bell curve handle up
and sweep left and right between 4K and 8K. Listen for the unpleasant range where
the esses are most irritating (between 7K and 8K ). Continue playback and drag the
bell curve down in the same position to reduce that frequency range.

The esses are greatly diminished, but so is the quality and tone of the voice. One of the
secrets to working with equalization is to make changes in small increments and use
multiple processing effects in combination.
9 When you’re finished, stop playback, and turn off the Equalizer.
Now that you’re familiar with the sound of excessive sibilance and where to find it in
this section of the dialogue, let’s use the De-Esser Fairlight FX plug-in to reduce it.
Reducing Sibilance with the De-Esser

The Fairlight FX De-Esser is a specialized EQ and compressor plug-in that uses a narrow
frequency range to control vocal sibilance.
1 In the Effects Library, drag the De-Esser plug-in onto the clip in the A2 track.

The De-Esser dialog includes a graph showing which part of the signal the controls
are set up to adjust. Meters show reduction and output, so you can see a side-by-
side comparison that indicates which parts of the signal are affected, how much the
targeted signal is reduced, and what level is being output.
2 Start looped playback. Drag the handle down as far as it goes and then sweep the
notch filter back and forth between 6K and 8K.
3 Under the Frequency Range controls, click the bell-curve filter button to reduce a
wider range of frequencies.
Once again, as with the 4-band EQ, too much of the vocal tone and character is
diminished along with the esses. Remember, less is more. Only reduce what is
necessary. Later, you can increase the amount of filtering or add another De-Esser in
the effects chain to improve the results. You’ll know your De-Esser plug-in is set too
high if you hear a dialogue lisp in which the T and S sounds are no longer intelligible.
4 Under the range controls, click the Notch button to return to the notched frequency
range. Slowly raise the handle toward the 0 dB line to decrease the amount of
reduction to around 50.3, or -10 dB on the graph.
Ideally, back off the filtering as much as you can to reduce the sibilance while retaining
the vocal quality.
Notice that no matter how much you reduce the targeted frequencies, the output level
remains the same. Remember, de-essers are actually specialized compressors—and
in this case, the built-in compression under the hood ensures that your output volume
remains intact.

5 Click the Bypass button to toggle the plug-in off and on and audition the before and
after versions of the dialogue phrase with the De-Esser plug-in applied.
You may think this is such a minor improvement, why bother? It’s for the same reason
that you fix the flesh tones during color correction. The results may seem minor in this
example, but sibilance is cumulative and becomes more pronounced the farther along
you go in dialogue mixing.
This clip has two working plug-ins: the Noise Reduction and De-Esser. They should
work well for the entire clip.
6 Close the De-Esser dialog. Set a play range for the entire clip and start playback to
hear the clip with both the Noise Reduction and De-Esser plug-ins applied. When
you’re finished, stop playback.
7 Mute the A2 track. Hide the Inspector and the Effects Library.
As you can see and hear, the Fairlight FX repair plug-ins work well independently or
in combination to improve the sound of your dialogue.
What Is Dynamic Range in Audio Postproduction?

When you’re working with audio, the dynamic range is the difference between the loudest
and quietest levels in a signal. A track’s dynamic range is very similar to visual contrast
within a shot. A dialogue track with a high dynamic range has very loud and very quiet
elements within the track, such as a character whispering and then screaming in the same
scene. A dialogue track with a low dynamic range is fairly flat, such as in a commercial
voiceover in which the volume level of the talent is even from start to finish.
Dynamic range also comes into consideration when performing noise reduction because the
range between the noise level and the dialogue levels can affect how much noise reduction
you can apply. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is a mathematical calculation based on the
dynamic range between the noise level and the dialogue level and is expressed in decibels
(dB). For example, if your voiceover track has an SNR value of 50 dB, it is 50 times louder
than the noise in the same track. The higher the SNR value, the better sounding the signal
and less prominent the noise.

Gating Low-Level Noise
Now that you have crossed into the realm of using mixing tools to improve dialogue, let’s
look at another common mixing tool that you can use to reduce or eliminate low-level
background noise.
1 Select the A5 Dynamics Gate track and enable the clip in the A5 Dynamics Gate track.
2 Mark the clip.
3 Show the mixer.
4 In the A5 channel strip, double-click the Dynamics controls to open the Dynamics
controls panel.
The Fairlight mixer includes the four most common dynamics processors in one
easy‑to-use panel. The compressor narrows the dynamic range by lowering the
loudest peaks and bringing them closer to the lowest peaks. The expander, in contrast,
enlarges the dynamic range to increase the difference between the loudest and
quietest peaks. The limiter and gate work on opposite ends of the signal to avoid
exceeding a target level (limiter) and to prevent sounds lower than a set threshold
from being heard (gate).
Let’s focus on using the gate to reduce or silence the part of the signal that is below
a given threshold.
Let’s turn on the gate while listening to the clip.
5 Start looped playback to hear the clip with low-level noise.

6 Click the Gate button to turn on the gate dynamics processing.
The noise is no longer audible, and the voiceover sounds pretty good. The dialogue
sounds processed in a few places, but it’s a start. So, what happened?
In the controls beneath the Gate button, you’ll see that the Threshold is set to the
default level of -35 dB, which means the gain (volume) of any signal that is below -35 dB
is reduced.
7 Watch the Gain Reduction meter during playback. You’ll see that the Gain Reduction
is active between dialogue phrases whenever there is no talking and the signal falls
below the threshold.
The Range control sets the maximum amount of gain reduction applied to the signal
when it falls below the gate threshold.

8 Drag the Range control to the right to increase the amount of reduction by the highest
amount, 60 dB.
The graph and Gain Reduction meter show that the signal below the Threshold (-35 dB)
is receiving the highest amount of gain reduction (-60 dB). That’s overkill for this signal.
9 Double-click the Range control to reset it to the default level.
Gating your low-level signal is very effective. However, it’s best to set the Threshold
as close to the noise level as possible. Otherwise, you will also remove all the breath
sounds and syllables that taper off below the Threshold.
TIP When adjusting audio controls, it’s often easier to start with the controls
set to their extreme levels, either the high or low, and then slowly back them off
or add them during playback until you achieve your goal.
10 During looped playback, adjust the Threshold level to lower it all the way to the left
(-50.0 dB). You’ll hear the background noise again. Then, slowly raise the Threshold
until you no longer hear the noise.

11 Drag the Range control all the way to the left, and slowly increase the Range value until
you no longer hear the background noise during playback.
12 When you’re finished, stop playback.
Notice that the graph in the channel strip matches the graph on the Dynamics panel.
13 Close the Dynamics panel and hide the mixer.
All these methods for removing background noise are useful and get easier to use the more
you work with them. Keep in mind that you can apply the Fairlight FX plug-ins individually to
clips or combine up to six per track. While gate processing is available on the track via the
mixer, sometimes you need to combine the noise reduction and gate for the best results.
TIP When a dialogue clip is contaminated with both hum and noise, remove the
hum first, so the noise reduction plug-in can home in on the noise, which is likely
a different frequency range than the hum.
Testing Your New Dialogue

Repair Skills in a Real-World Clip
Before you move on to editing waveforms in the next section, let’s take 5 minutes to put
your new audio repair skills to the test.

Your goal in this exercise is to use your ears and knowledge to quickly diagnose the issues
in a clip’s audio tracks and then determine the most effective and efficient way to repair
the sound using tools that you’ve already learned. For this exercise, you’ll step away from
the Hyperlight project to work with a clip from a real-world cooking show.
To keep things moving, and keep you thinking, we’ll provide only some loose guideline
steps. Remember, this is also a timed exercise that should be completed in less than
5 minutes. Let’s get started.
1 In the media pool, select the Additional Footage bin at the bottom of the Master bin
list. This bin contains only one clip, which is the one you will be repairing shortly.
2 Right-click the A001_07081653_C002_v2.mov clip inside the Additional Footage bin and
choose > Create New Timeline Using Selected Clips.
3 In the New Timeline dialog, name the timeline Cooking Clip Audio and then
click Create. Since this clip would likely start on the edit page in editorial, let’s do
that as well.
4 Go to the edit page and play the beginning of the clip and use your ears to troubleshoot.

What do you think? The timeline shows only one channel in a stereo track, so you can’t
use your eyes to troubleshoot. Hopefully, your ears recognize the common audio
issues. Chances are, you immediately noticed the heavy noise, refrigerator hum, and
the fact that Jamie’s voice is coming from the right speaker only. Although the repair
plug-ins are also available in the edit page, let’s go back to the Fairlight page where
you’ll have full access to all your new repair tools and workflows.
5 Go to the Fairlight page and expand the track height for a larger view of the
audio track.
As expected, it is a stereo clip with only one usable channel of dialogue, and the
usable dialogue channel is full of noise and hum. With that information…fix it!
The clock is ticking.
If you need a little guidance, feel free to use the bulleted hints below.
— Change the clip’s attributes from Stereo to Mono with only the good dialog channel
exposed. Then change the track to mono.
— Apply the De-Hummer plug-in to the clip. Drag the Amount dial to -30 and sweep
the Frequency dial until the high-pitched hum disappears. If necessary, try
clicking the Listen to Hum Only checkbox to hear only the hum until you find the
target frequency (approximately 101 Hz). Adjust the Slope to see if the hum is
more prominent in the harmonic frequencies. Deselect Listen to Hum only. Then
back off on the Amount as much as you can while still eliminating the sound
(approximately -20 dB).
— Apply the Noise Reduction plug-in and try either the Auto Speech mode or Manual
mode using the Learn button and a range to make a noise print.
— Experiment with different settings in the plug-ins to refine the sound, such as
adjusting the Slope in the De-Hummer while listening to Jamie’s voice to find a
position where the hum is removed and his voice is less impacted by the notch
filters (about 0.9).
Congratulations! You just completed a real-world dialogue repair job in mere minutes.
If you’d like to see an example of the finished clip, open the timeline, 6 Real World Audio
Repairs Finished.

Dealing with Processor
Intensive Plug‑Ins
In DaVinci Resolve, there is no limit to the number of plug-ins that you can add to a clip.
However, as your tracks get more complex and plug-ins become more processer intensive,
you may discover that your computer lacks the processing power to play all your audio
tracks and effects in real time. When that happens, there are two ways to alleviate the
burden that the processor-intensive audio effects have on your workstation.
The first option is to cache your audio clips with plug-ins, and the second option is to
bounce audio clips with plug-ins. The first method “bakes” the plug-in effects in a cache file
and updates the waveform accordingly. This method does not create new media, can easily
be turned on or off while you work, and the cache file automatically updates every time
you change any of the plug-in settings. Bouncing audio clips renders a new piece of media
with the plug-in effects baked in as part of the waveform. Let’s go to the previous timeline
and take a look at both methods.
1 Open the timeline, “7 Repairs and Fairlight FX.”
2 Unmute the A1 track if necessary. Clear the play range, if necessary.
3 Right-click the first clip in the A1 track and choose Cache Audio Effect.

The cached clip’s waveform updates, and a cache badge in the lower-left corner lets
you know that this audio clip has cached effects.
4 Select the cached clip and open the Inspector. Here you will also see the cache badge
next to the plug-in for the cached clip.
You can still use the bypass switch and open the plug-in settings from the Inspector
to change any of the parameters in the plug-in’s settings window. Now let’s cache and
then bounce the second clip.
5 Right-click the second clip in the A1 track and choose Cache Audio Effect.
As you can see by the cached waveform, the results are nearly identical to the
previous clip.
6 Right-click the second clip in the A1 track and uncheck Cache Audio Effect.
Dealing with Processor Intensive Plug‑Ins 309

7 Right-click the second clip and choose Bounce Audio Effects. A new rendered clip
appears in the timeline. The original clip is still there, just beneath the bounced clip.
8 Choose View > Show Audio Track Layers to see the rendered clip on the top layer and
the original clip disabled underneath.
Now that you’ve seen how to cache and bounce clips with audio effects, you can apply
these processor-saving techniques to your own projects.
Repairing Dialogue with Voice

Isolation (Studio Version Only)
DaVinci Resolve 18.1 includes two new dialogue-based Track FX for quickly removing
background noise and improving dialogue levels. You’ve already worked with the Dialogue
Leveler Track FX to help balance dialogue in Lesson 5. Now it’s time to explore the powerful
new Voice Isolation Track FX available for DaVinci Resolve Studio. Voice Isolation is a
DaVinci Neural Engine AI-based effects process that recognizes and isolates the human
voice from background sounds. Simply enable Voice Isolation for either a clip or track for
immediate results. Both Voice Isolation and the Dialogue Leveler are built-in Track FX,
which means they are already available on every clip through the Inspector or on every
track via the mixer or Inspector.
For this exercise, you’ll test-drive the Voice Isolation effect on several examples with
obvious background noise issues. Along the way, you’ll also gain a better understanding of
applying it to a clip versus a track.

1 Open the 7 Track FX Start timeline.
2 Hide the media pool and viewer, if necessary.
3 Show the Inspector and mixer.
As you can see, this timeline includes three tracks, each with different examples for
the Dialogue Leveler. Let’s start with locating the Track FX for A1 in the mixer and
Inspector.
4 Select the A1 track.
5 Find the Track FX near the top of the mixer and Inspector for the selected track.
The Fairlight FX plug-ins appear at the top of the Audio FX list.

6 Play the clips in the A1 track to hear dialogue mixed with heavy crowd noise, traffic, a
helicopter, and an explosion.
Yikes.
7 Select the A1 track, if necessary, to ensure that the track and not a clip within the track
is showing in the Inspector. Enable Voice Isolation in the Inspector.
Enabling a Track FX in the Inspector also enables it in the mixer and vice versa.
8 Play the clips in the A1 track again.
It’s like magic! This time, you hear only the dialogue because it has been isolated from
other non-speaking sounds (hence the name).
Now let’s try it on the clip in the A2 track. This clip was recorded at a very low level with
a fan near the microphone. First, you’ll need to increase the clip gain level to hear the
clip. Then apply Voice Isolation to clean up the background noise.

9 Mark and play the clip in the A2 track. Then increase the level of the clip gain line as
much as needed to clearly hear the dialogue.
10 In the mixer, enable Voice Isolation on the A2 track. Play the clip in the A2 track again.
Wow, right? Even the clunking of the microphone prior to speaking is eliminated.
Imagine how useful Voice Isolation would be for cleaning up interviews, archives, and
documentary footage recorded in noisy locations.
Next, you’ll try Voice Isolation on a familiar clip contaminated with 60-Hz hum. This
time, you’ll apply Voice Isolation to the individual clip in the A3 track.
NOTE Enabling a Track FX in the mixer will always apply it to the entire track.
To apply a Track FX to a clip, you’ll need to select the clip and enable it from
the Inspector. The Inspector shows Track FX for both the track and the clip
depending on which is selected.
11 Mark the clip in the A3 track. Select the clip, if necessary.
12 In the Inspector, enable Voice Isolation for the selected clip.

Notice that Voice Isolation is enabled in the Inspector and not in the mixer. Also, the
fx badge on the first clip in the A3 track indicates that an effect has been applied to
the clip.
13 Clear the play range and play the clip to hear the results.
The hum is completely gone. All that remains are the human voice sounds, including
a few breaths, tongue clicks, and other natural sounds. Since Voice Isolation is an
effect applied to a clip, it can also be cached or bounced to free up processing if you’re
working with a slower computer.
14 Right-click the clip in the A3 track and choose > Cache Audio Effects from the
contextual menu.
15 Play the cached clip.

You can still adjust the volume level of the clip as needed while it is cached, and you can
deselect the Cache Audio Effects option at any time.
Applying Track FX to a Real-World Project

Now that you’ve experimented with some exaggerated examples and have witnessed
firsthand the power of Voice Isolation, let’s put it to work on the cooking show clip to see
how it does on a more realistic example. The cooking show clip is also a great example for
using the Dialogue Leveler. In this exercise, you’ll apply both track effects to the cooking
show track to clean up and fix levels in seconds.
1 Open the 7 Track FX Real World Start timeline. Hide the media pool and Inspector, if
necessary. Show the viewer and mixer.
2 Play some or all of the clip to hear Chef Jamie along with an abundance of
background noise.
This time, instead of using a De-Hummer and Noise Reduction plug-in to clean up the
sound, you’ll apply Voice Isolation.
3 In the mixer, enable Voice Isolation on the A1 track.
4 Play some of the clip to hear the results.
Voice Isolation worked beautifully with a single click. There’s just one problem. This is
a cooking show, shot on location in a real kitchen. Removing all of the non-speaking
sound has also removed the ambient reality of this location. Time to back off the
amount to reveal some of the background sound.

5 In the mixer, click the Controls button to open the Voice Isolation controls window.
The Voice Isolation controls window includes an Amount dial to adjust how much Voice
Isolation is applied to the sound. You can reduce the amount to reveal more of the
background sound as needed for a more natural result.
6 Play the clip and slowly reduce the Amount control until you’re happy with the levels of
the background noise and voice. Pay close attention to the end of the clip where Chef
Jamie moves his wok on the stove. You should be able to hear the sound of a pan on
the stove.

Now, the last step is to add the Dialogue Leveler to the track. You’ll also use the Meter
plug-in as a guide so that you can see the improvements in levels balancing with the
Dialogue Leveler.
7 Add the Meter plug-in to the A1 track. Resize the floating meter, if necessary.
8 In the mixer, enable the Dialogue Leveler and open the Controls window. Arrange
the controls windows in the timeline so they are easy to see while you watch and
listen. Play the second half of the clip while watching the plug-in control windows and
listening to the levels.
The sound is natural and smooth, and the levels stay within the target yellow zone on
the meter! Now play the second half of the clip again and watch the levels without the
Dialogue Leveler.
9 Click the Bypass switch on the Dialogue Leveler to turn it off and play the second half
of the clip. Pay close attention to the sound and levels as Chef Jamie turns away from
or leans toward the lapel microphone. Toggle the Dialogue Leveler off and on during
playback to appreciate the power of the leveler. When you’re finished, stop playback.
Now that you are experienced with cleaning up distracting sounds in dialogue tracks using
tools that come with DaVinci Resolve 18, you’ll be ready for nearly any dialogue challenge
that comes your way on your own projects.

Removing Clicks at
the Sample Level
So far, you’ve decreased your biggest noise issues. Now let’s explore a common problem
that’s much smaller in scale but equally significant. Previously, all your work has been
performed at the frame level. But you’re ready to dive much deeper into the waveform to
perform microsurgery at the sample level. In this set of exercises, you’ll take a close look
at a single frame of audio and then find and mark a digital click that is embedded in a
waveform. And to make things even more interesting, this common irritant is located right
in the middle of an instrumental track, so no noise reduction or replacement outtakes are
available to fix this issue.
Sample-level editing requires a new set of skills and patience. For starters, you need to
abandon most of the shortcuts you’ve been using for navigation. You’ll learn the rest as
you go along.
Let’s start by opening a different timeline containing a single music clip.
1 Open the timeline, 7b Fix Music Cue.
At a glance, the waveform appears to be full of diminutive spikes that may or may not
be issues. The even spacing between the spikes in the waveform usually indicate a
percussion beat. However, the only way to be sure is to listen to the track.
2 Play the clip. During playback, listen to the music while you watch the playhead move
along the waveform.
Did you notice the digital click (glitch) near the middle of the track?
3 Press Shift-Down Arrow to move the playhead to the blue timeline marker. Play the clip
from the blue marker. When you hear the distracting click, stop playback.
Digital clicks and pops can be as aurally irritating as gnats at a picnic. However, before
exterminating this digital annoyance, you should look at some of the navigation
shortcuts you’ll need.

4 Move the playhead to the green marker near the head of the clip.
Below the green marker, you’ll see a slightly thicker and less prominent spike in the
waveform. This is actually the 2-pop, which is a single frame of 1-kHz tone placed
2 seconds before the start of picture or sound as an audible sync mark.
5 Zoom in horizontally until you can clearly see the 2-pop’s waveform.
6 Press the Right Arrow once to move one frame forward. Press the Left Arrow to move
one frame back.
Even though the 2-pop is only one frame in duration, the playhead still scrubs the clip
so you can hear the pop in either direction.

7 Drag the playhead over the middle of the 2-pop and zoom in closer until the waveform
spreads from edge to edge across the timeline.
Notice the waveform’s pattern within that single frame.
8 Press the Right Arrow and Left Arrow to scrub the single frame again, both forward
and backward.
Single-frame navigation is the smallest available navigational method when you’re

using either the JKL or Left and Right Arrow keys.
9 Drag the playhead over one peak in the waveform. Then, zoom in further until you see
individual samples (dots) that make up the waveform. Zoom in horizontally as far as
you can to see the individual samples.
Welcome to the sample level of the waveform. Just as molecules are the building
blocks of matter, samples are their equivalent in digital audio.
10 Press Shift-Z to fit the clip to the timeline.
Now that you’ve seen how to get to the sample level of your clips, it’s time to move on
to the digital click in the music track.

Isolating the Audible Glitch as a New Clip
Because you’re probably new to editing samples in the Fairlight page, it’s a good idea to first
create a play range and split the clip around the digital issue. Splitting the clip won’t actually
help you with sample editing, but it makes navigating around your issue much easier.
1 Move the playhead to the red timeline marker.
2 Zoom in so that both the red marker and the click’s waveform spike are visible in
the timeline.
3 Press the Right Arrow key to scrub forward one frame.
The click’s waveform is nowhere to be seen when you move one frame to the right.
4 Press the Left Arrow to move the playhead back one frame to the red marker.
5 Drag a play range around the click waveform. Then drag down
slightly on the selection to split it at the play range.
Why create a separate clip for the click? Because doing so

enables you to navigate to the head and tail of that separate,
diminutive clip using the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys, just
as with any other clip. So, you’ll never get lost, even at the
sample level.
6 Press A to switch to Selection mode.
7 Press the Up and Down Arrow keys to practice navigating

between the head and tail of the new clip.

8 Drag the playhead over the middle of the newly created clip and zoom in until you
clearly see the clip’s waveform and samples.
You’ve isolated the issue and have a clear view of the audible glitch. Next, you’ll redraw
the waveform to eliminate the errant sound altogether.
Editing Samples to Correct the Waveform

Your goal in this exercise is to redraw the waveform to eliminate the drastic peaks that
make up the glitch. You don’t want to silence the section by dragging the waveform all the
way down because that, too, will be audible. Instead, you’ll draw a smooth horizontal line
to connect the samples at the left with the samples at the right and continue the existing
waveform. Because this music clip is in stereo, you’ll need to redraw the waveform on both
the left (upper) and right (lower) channels.
1 In the upper channel, click one of the samples prior to the drastic change in the
waveform. The sample turns red to indicate that it is selected. You can now drag up,
down, right, or left to redraw the waveform.

2 Drag the sample to the right to create a smooth horizontal waveform that connects
with the existing samples at the tail of the clip.
Don’t worry if your sample drawing isn’t perfect. You can drag back and forth as much
as needed to smooth it out. The secret to editing at the sample level is to draw smooth
lines (but not necessarily straight lines) that reconnect with the samples on either side
of the change.
NOTE To reset a clip’s samples, right-click the clip and choose Reset
Edited Samples.

3 Repeat steps 1 and 2 in the lower channel.
4 When you’re finished, clear the play range.
5 Press Shift-Z.
6 Play the clip from the blue marker to hear the repaired glitch. If you hear the edit,
go back in and try to smooth it out. You’ll know it’s right when you can’t hear any
indication that the waveform was ever edited.
You just performed a seamless “glitch-ectomy” in the middle of a busy instrumental music
clip. You can apply this same sample-level technique on dialogue clips to remove noises or
even shave the “s” off of a plural word. When you get used to sample-level editing, you can
do it without first splitting the clip. For now, splitting the clip is like using training wheels
for sample-editing newbies and can be a time saver for seasoned editors, as well.

Retiming Audio with
Elastic Wave Time Controls
The last audio repair tool that you’ll work with is Elastic Wave audio retiming, which is a fast
and easy keyframe-based way of dynamically retiming audio by condensing or stretching
different parts of a waveform without changing pitch. This is commonly used for retiming
sound effects, commercial voiceover cues, and matching ADR recordings to the lip
movement onscreen.
In this exercise, you’ll use Elastic Wave keyframes to retime an ADR recording to match the
original dialogue in the timeline.
1 Open the timeline, 7 Elastic Wave Start.
This clip is a bounced composition of the best recorded takes.
Now you can see two ADR recordings in the lower layers and the bounced clip in the
upper layer.
3 Select both clips in the lower layers and press D to disable them. Then Hide Audio
Track Layers.
As you know, you could flatten the audio track layers, which would delete the takes
in the lower layers. However, if there is a possibility that you may need to access the
original takes, it’s better to keep them hidden in the layers where you can access them.

4 Mark the clip in the A1 track to set a playback range.
5 Solo tracks A1 and A2 and start looped playback. Listen to the clips together to
determine how well they match. Stop playback.
Clearly, they don’t match very well. Let’s use the Elastic Wave keyframes to retime the
clip in the A1 track to match the clip in the A2 track.
6 Right-click the clip in the A1 track and choose Elastic Wave to reveal the Elastic Wave
retiming controls.
Now you can retime the entire clip or add time keyframes to stretch or condense
specific areas of the waveform using keyframe markers.
7 Move your pointer over the right edge of the clip to see the Trim tool. Move the pointer
toward the left over the clip until it changes to the Retiming tool.

8 With the Retiming tool showing, drag the right side of the clip toward the right to
stretch, and then drag toward the left to condense the entire clip.
9 Stretch the clip back toward the right until the waveform for the last word in each clip
aligns. You can do this visually or by playing the end of the clips as needed until the
timing of the word “Lab” is the same on both clips.
10 Start looped playback and listen to the timing of the clips together.
It’s amazing how just retiming the clip slightly and aligning the last word really helps match
the entire clip. However, there is still room for improvement.

Using Elastic Wave Speed Keyframes
to Retime the Waveform
To finesse the timing of specific areas of the waveform within the clip, you simply add
speed keyframes. Once you add a speed keyframe, you can drag it left or right to stretch
the wave accordingly. Speed changes based on keyframes affect only the waveform from
that keyframe to the neighboring keyframes applied to that clip. Using an audio clip’s
waveform as your guide, you can use multiple speed keyframes to match the waveform of
one performance to the waveform of another to match the timing.
In this exercise, you’ll use Elastic Wave speed keyframes to further improve the timing
between the two clips. Let’s start with the word “Identify” at the beginning of the clip. At a
glance, you might think that the start of the waveform in each clip is the beginning of the
word “Identify.” It isn’t. So, you’ll need to set a time keyframe before the first syllable in
Identify and move it into position. Resolve provides handy keyboard shortcuts for adding
and removing speed keyframes: Command-click (macOS), Ctrl-click (Windows) to add a time
keyframe, and Option-Command-click (macOS) or Alt-Ctrl-click (Windows) to delete a time
keyframe. First, let’s listen to the beginning of the clips in the A1 and A2 tracks. Then, we’ll use
time keyframes to stretch the waveform in A1 to align with the same syllable in the A2 track.
1 Solo the A1 track and play the first part of the waveform to identify the first syllables
and word in the clip.
In this case, the first syllable is “I” for the word “Identify”.
2 Unsolo A1. Repeat step 1 for the A2 track.
Interesting. This time the first syllable in the waveform is actually just a breath—which
means the beginnings of the two clips are not aligned at all. Let’s add a time keyframe
before the waveform in the A1 track, and then move the beginning of the first word to
align with the beginning of the first word on the A2 track.
3 Command-click the clip in the A1 track, just to the left of the waveform start. The (+)
indicates that you are adding a time keyframe.

4 Drag the time keyframe (red vertical line) toward the right to align the waveform with
the clip below.
Wait! Look at the waveform. Previously, everything was aligned except the first part of
the word “Identify.” Now, the entire rest of the clip is misaligned. Let’s undo that last
step and add a keyframe where the waveform lines up perfectly in both clips to hold
this position and prevent the waveform changes from rippling beyond this point to the
end of the clip.
5 Choose Edit > Undo or press the Undo shortcut. Repeat if necessary until the
waveforms are realigned and the time marker is where you originally placed it.
6 Solo A1 and A2. Scrub the clips and find where they are aligned, just before the
word “the.”
Since this part of the waveform lines up perfectly in both clips, you’ll use a time
keyframe to hold this position and prevent the waveform changes from rippling
beyond this point to the end of the clip.
7 Add a time keyframe before the word “the.”

8 Unsolo A2. Add another time keyframe just before the “den” syllable in “i-den-ti-fy.”
If you wish to move the position of a keyframe relative to the waveform, you can hold
Command while dragging the keyframe left or right. To delete a keyframe, just hover
over the keyframe and then right-click and choose Remove Speed Keyframe or use the
keyboard shortcut. You can also reset the entire speed curve by choosing Reset Speed
Curve from the same right-click contextual menu.
9 Move the first two keyframes as needed to align the syllables for “identify” until they
match the same word in the A2 track. Feel free to add more keyframes and experiment
with adjusting the clip’s timing.
10 Feel free to add more keyframes and experiment with adjusting the clip’s timing.
11 Once you’re finished adjusting the waveform, play the two clips together to hear the
results. The timing should be very close, if not identical.
For the real test, the ADR clip with the retimed audio should stand alone in sync with
the video clip and mouth movement.

This is an excellent opportunity to use the full-screen Cinema Viewer preview to check
lip sync with the retimed clip.
12 Unsolo the A2 track. Keep the A1 track soloed.
13 Choose Workspace > Viewer Mode > Cinema Viewer or press Command-F (macOS) or
Ctrl-F (Windows) to change the entire screen to a full Cinema Viewer.
14 Start looped playback and listen to the modified clip while watching the video. If it
looks like Emiliana is speaking the words, based on her lip movement, your retiming is
a success! Press Esc to exit Cinema Viewer mode.
15 If you want to refine your clip retiming, double-click the left side of the Elastic Wave
badge to quickly reopen the retiming tools. When you’re finished, you can double-click
the left side of the Elastic Wave badge again to hide the retiming tools.
NOTE All Elastic Wave retiming adjustments you make in the Fairlight page appear
in the edit page as variable speed effects, accessible using the Retime controls.
However, not all retiming effects created on the edit page can appear as Elastic
Wave retime effects on the Fairlight page.
More Audio Repairs Please!

You covered quite a few new tools and techniques in this pair of dialogue repair lessons,
including keyframing plosives; removing annoying noises between words; gating low-
level noise; repairing plug-ins including the De-Hummer, Noise Reduction, and De-Esser
plug-ins; and, finally, performing sample-level repairs and waveform retiming. Whew! As a
dialogue editing and mixing trainee, you rock!
Now, you can put some of those skills to the test and choose your own audio adventure
from the following list. You may need to go back to the corresponding section in this
lesson or Lesson 6 to refresh your memory.
In the “6d Dialogue Work Finished timeline:”
— Select a word or phrase in one of the dialogue tracks and replace it with the same
word or phrase from the outtake clip in the Files for Repair and Replace bin.

— Create a 30-second room tone clip from a selection in the existing timeline dialogue
clips. Create a new room track. Copy and paste the selected clip. Stitch the clip
together in audio track layers. Bounce the stitched room tone clips to a new layer.
— Select the group of clips in the A2 track that contained the clothing crackles. Right-click
and remove audio attributes to clear all the volume changes. Set keyframes to balance
the clip and reduce the crackles.
— Choose a clip with sibilance and plosives. Use the De-Esser plug-in to reduce the
sibilance and keyframes to reduce plosives.
In the “7a Reduced Noise” timeline:
— Delete the De-Hummer plug-in from the clip in the A1 track. Apply a new De-Hummer
plug-in and adjust it to remove the hum.
— Remove the plug-ins from the clip on the A3 track and try reducing the noise using
the Noise Reduction plug-in. Try using Manual and Auto-Speech modes for the
best results.
— If you’re up for a challenge, delete the plug-ins from the clip in A4 and try reducing the
noise. Use as many de-noise plug-ins as you need. Consider gating the low-level noise
once it has been reduced.
In the “7b Fix Music Cue” timeline:
— Right-click the first part of the music clip and choose Show in Media Pool. Drag the
music clip from the media pool to the empty space below the A1 track to create a
new track. Mute the A1 track. Use sample-level editing to remove the glitch from the
music clip.
Coming up in the next lesson, you’ll step out of the dialogue editor’s seat and into the
creative role of the sound designer.
Lesson Review
1 True or false? You can apply up to six plug-ins to a clip and apply unlimited plug-ins
to a track.
2 Which Fairlight FX plug-in is designed to remove powerline hum from an audio clip?
a) Noise Reduction
b) Hum Remover
c) De-Hummer
d) Un-Hummer

3 True or false? When using the Fairlight FX Noise Reduction plug-in, the Manual mode
utilizes the Learn button to create a noise profile.
4 Which Fairlight FX repair plug-in reduces excessive sibilance?

a) Shusher
b) Ess-Remover
c) De-Essinator
d) De-Esser
5 True or false? The Fairlight FX Sample Editor plug-in lets you see and edit the audio
waveform at the sample level.
6 How do you enable the Elastic Wave retiming controls?

a) Use the Elastic FX plug-in
b) Choose Elastic Wave from the right-click menu
c) Enable Elastic Wave in the clip Inspector
d) Select the clip and click the Elastic Wave button in the toolbar
7 Which modifier key is used to add and adjust time keyframes in the Elastic Wave
retiming controls?
a) Command
b) Shift
c) Spacebar
d) Option
8 Which DaVinci Resolve Studio built-in Track FX uses AI to remove background noise
from clips that contain a human voice?
a) Dialogue Enhancer
b) Dialogue Leveler
c) Voice Enhancer
d) Voice Isolation
e) Noise Reduction
Lesson Review 333

Answers
1 False. You can apply unlimited plug-ins to a clip and up to six plug-ins to a track.
2 c
3 True
4 d
5 False. There is no Fairlight FX Sampler Editor plug-in. To edit waveforms at the sample
level, simply zoom in to the waveform to see the samples on the Fairlight page.
6 b
7 a
8 d

Lesson 8
Enhancing the
Soundtrack with
Sound Design
Creating the aural illusion of a scene Time
involves both the imagination and This lesson takes approximately
creative problem-solving skills of the 75 minutes to complete.
sound designer. Outstanding motion Goals

picture sound design has helped
film and television audiences travel
through deep space, thwart alien
Creating a Reversed
invaders, evade dinosaurs, escape
Percussion Transition Effect 341
unnatural disasters, and survive
the zombie apocalypse.
Doubling a Track to
Thicken the Sound 352
Multiplying Voices Using

the Chorus Plug-In 360
Adding Depth with

Time-Based Plug‑Ins 365
Creating Physical Sound

Barriers with EQ 381
Lesson Review 406

Once an audience has “been-there-done-that,” an onscreen soundscape (audible
landscape) becomes part of the accepted “norm” for similar onscreen experiences. A sound
designer’s goal is to create a rich, realistic, and emotionally compelling soundtrack that
exceeds the audience’s expectations without drawing attention away from the story.
In this lesson, you will become a sound designer and be responsible for inserting sound
effects; manipulating sounds to fit the scene; and adding height, width, and depth to the
soundtrack. Along the way, you’ll also learn some powerful new DaVinci Resolve 18 tools,
plug-ins, and shortcuts.
What Does a Sound Designer Do?

The sound designer is responsible for creating sound effects and subtle sound layers to
enhance the feeling and mood of a scene, while also managing the post-production sound
process. In many cases, the sound designer is also the supervising sound editor. Think of
the sound designer as an acoustic head chef responsible for the overall sound experience.
And like a chef, the sound designer oversees every element on every track as the sounds
are cumulatively blended, balanced, and mixed into the final soundtrack.

Throughout this lesson, you’ll explore and work with a variety of different timelines.
Let’s start with a timeline containing two finished scenes from Hyperlight that represent
excellent examples of creative sound design. In this exercise, you’ll open the first timeline
and set up the marker index.
1 Hide all open panels, if necessary. In the Timeline View Options menu, hide the
video tracks.
2 Open the 8 Sample Sound Design Scenes timeline.
The timeline opens with four stereo audio tracks; tracks A2 through A4 are muted.
3 Show the viewer and then resize and move it so it fits into the lower-right half of
the screen.
4 In the Index, show the Markers panel. Change the Markers index to list view, if
necessary. Show only the columns Number, Frame, Color, Name, Notes, and Keyword
in that order from left to right.
336 Lesson 8 Enhancing the Soundtrack with Sound Design

5 Drag the vertical boundary between the Markers index and the timeline to the right
and enlarge the Markers index until you can read the entire Name and Notes columns.
6 Hide the Index.
7 Press Shift-Z to fit the clips into the visible timeline area. Do not play the timeline yet.
The marker index is ready when you need it, and the timeline is ready to go.
in the previous lesson. If you skipped ahead to this lesson, you may need to review
previous lessons.
Understanding Diegetic versus Non-Diagetic Sound

All soundtrack elements fall into one of two categories: sound occurring within the scene
that the characters can hear, or diegetic sound, and non-diegetic sound that is added in post
for the benefit of the audience. Spoken and unspoken dialogue that the characters think or
say is diegetic because it comes from the characters within the context of their onscreen
world. Narrative voiceover that the characters can’t hear or respond to is non-diegetic.
Non-diegetic music, such as the score, can be a major contributor to a scene’s emotional
impact. Other non-diegetic sounds include drones, pulses, percussive beats, whines, warbles,
stingers, alarms, ticking, heartbeats, tinkling bells, and cymbal swells that are added to the
soundtrack specifically to manipulate the audience’s emotions. Often, these non-diegetic
sounds reflect the innermost thoughts and emotions of the characters within the scene.

When you start a new scene as a sound designer, you focus on the diegetic sounds that
must be included with the dialogue to reinforce the characters’ actions and location.
These include Foley effects, such as footsteps, source sound effects generated by objects
onscreen, and any other background or ambient sound effects unique to the location.
Through television and films, audiences have been well trained to recognize the sounds
of common locations. For example, a busy hospital scene needs diegetic sounds such as
beeping monitors, respirators, alarms, public address announcements paging doctors
and staff, and the distant sounds of ambulance sirens to meet the audience’s audio
expectations for that location.
A professionally designed soundtrack is a powerful and cost-effective way to set a mood

and maximize the emotional impact of a scene. For example, when the soundtrack includes
gentle uplifting music, birds chirping outside, and laughing children, the mood will be
positive and hopeful. In contrast, ominous music and cliché sounds such as squeaky carts,
dripping faucets, and buzzing flies can completely alter the mood as effectively as a blood
curdling scream.
Once the diegetic sounds have been established, the sound designer often adds layers of
atmospheric background and mood-enhancing sounds to manipulate the audience and
evoke tension, excitement, or elation, depending on the context of the scene.
Analyzing the Soundtrack Stems

A seasoned sound designer reads the script and meets with the director, editor, and
composer to discuss the overall style and feel of the project. They watch the film one scene
at a time and make a spotting list of elements that need to be added, enhanced, or replaced.
To better understand the power of sound design, let’s play the first scene and listen to
the finished mix. Then, you’ll watch the same scene again and listen to each of the three
fundamental components (stems) that make up the soundtrack: dialogue, sound effects,
and music. With each listening pass, you’ll gain a better understanding of the cumulative
effect of these elements.
This is also a great opportunity to use the full-screen Cinema Viewer mode while you watch
and listen to the scene.
1 Play the first clip in the timeline and try to identify which sounds (other than dialogue)
are diegetic sounds that the character Emiliana can hear, and which sounds are purely
for the audience. Press P for Cinema Viewer mode. When you are finished, press P
again to return the viewer to the previous size and position.

What did you think of the soundtrack? As promised, this soundtrack demonstrates
exceptional sound design and music composition based on director Nguyen-Anh
Nguyen’s artistic vision.
Clearly, the musical score was designed to evoke tension and fear to help the audience
feel the character’s internal emotions. Let’s play the scene again and listen to only the
dialogue stem in the A2 track. In this case, the dialogue stem is also a great example of
diegetic sound.
Soundtracks comprise three primary components: the dialogue, the sound effects
(SFX), and the music. Many tracks are mixed down to create each of these fundamental
stems in the final mix.
2 Mute the A1 STEREO MIX track. Unmute the A2 DIALOGUE STEM track. Play the
clip again to hear only the finished dialogue stem with the dialogue tracks and
production sound.
It takes only a few seconds to realize just how empty and unrealistic the location
and set seems without the embellished diegetic sound effects and the non-diegetic
accents and music. Suddenly, the scene has lost credibility and your focus may drift
toward defects in the set rather than the emotional story onscreen. If you imagined
specific sound effects that you would like to hear, you are thinking like a sound effects
editor and sound designer.
Did you notice the excessive crackling of the space blanket when Emiliana yanked it off
her back? This is one of the rare exceptions when crackling fabric movement picked up
on the talent’s microphone during production actually works in the final soundtrack.

3 Unmute the A3 SFX STEM track. Play the clip again, this time listening for both diegetic
sound effects that work with the dialogue to complete the scene and non-diegetic
sounds used to enhance the audience’s experience.
Did you notice all the layers of sound used to increase tension? Let’s listen one more
time to only the dialogue and music.
4 Mute the A3 track and unmute the A4 track. Play the clip once more.
The score is powerful enough to carry the drama, but it doesn’t convincingly establish
the location or enhance the tension without the sound effects track.
Now, let’s listen to the final stereo mix for the scene that comes right after the
primary dialogue scene in which Philip tells Emiliana that her counterpart from his
reality is dead.
5 Unmute all the tracks and solo the A1 track. Play the second clip in the timeline. During
playback, listen for sounds that help establish the location. See if you can identify
sounds added only for dramatic effect. Listen for changes in the dialogue or footstep
sounds that suggest the physical space and surfaces.
What did you think of this scene? Once again, the excellent sound design really adds
authenticity to the story and the location. Hopefully, listening to these soundtrack stems
has given you a greater appreciation for and understanding of sound design and the
power of both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds.
NOTE Feel free to listen to each of the separate stems in tracks A2, A3, and A4 for
the second clip in the timeline, before moving on to the next section.

Creating a Reversed
Percussion Transition Effect
Throughout this lesson, you’ll work with a variety of sound manipulation tools available
only in the DaVinci Resolve Fairlight page. However, you can apply speed changes to a clip
in the cut page, edit page, and with DaVinci Resolve 18, the Fairlight page. You use the
brand new speed change tools in the Fairlight page to perform a simple speed change
to a percussion clip.
Speed changes allow a sound designer to change the duration of a clip or reverse a clip
to create a stylized transitional sound between scenes. In this exercise, you’ll create a
unique transitional sound effect in seconds. Let’s use the Marker index to locate a finished
example of a transitional sound effect already placed in the mix.
1 Show the Index. In the list, double-click the thumbnail for marker #13 to move the
playhead to that position.
2 Solo the A1 track, if necessary. Play the clip from the marker’s position to see the visual
transition and hear the reversed audio effect.
Reversing a percussion crash or other sound effect is a fun way to button a scene
(decisively end the scene). The first step toward creating that effect is to choose a
sound effect that will work for the transition.
3 Hide the Index, and show the media pool.

4 In the media pool, choose Hyperlight Audio > SFX for Audio Post > Sound Design
FX > Sound Design Layers Pile Driver.wav. Then, change the preview player zoom
level to 1x.
This clip contains a series of percussion sounds recorded using the Pile Driver MIDI
drumkit sound from Apple Logic Pro X.
5 Change the preview player’s zoom level to 5x.
Now you can see a closer view of the waveforms for each recorded sound. Waveforms
with a defined triangular shape that start loud and taper off make good candidates for
a reverse speed effect.
NOTE To save time, the clip has already been marked with In and Out points
containing three different percussion hits.
Previewing a Clip in Reverse Speed

The preview player in the Fairlight page media pool lets you preview your source media
in both forward and reverse playback. So, you can “test drive” an effect’s reverse sound
before editing it into the timeline. In this exercise, you’ll listen to the three marked clips in
forward and reverse playback and mark one to edit into the timeline.

1 In the preview player, press Shift-I to move the playhead to the marked In point.
2 Press L to play the three marked percussion hits. After the third percussion
hit, press K.
3 Press J to preview the percussion hits in reverse. After the third reversed percussion
hit, press K.
Which reversed percussion hit do you think would sound best under the visual
transition? Let’s go with the third one because it has the longest tail and the most
defined slope from the original hit to the end. Instead of dragging the clip to the
existing timeline, let’s experiment by applying speed changes in a new timeline.
Creating a New Timeline for

SFX Experimentation
Like most art forms, sound design can be fun yet messy. So, it’s always a good idea to
experiment with sound effect creation and manipulation in an isolated timeline. By doing
so, you can unleash your creative ideas without worrying about adversely affecting other
audio clips in the timeline. Plus, when the effect is a success, you can use that timeline as a
template for creating similar effects.
1 Move the playhead just before the third hit and press I to mark a new In point.

2 In the Sound Design FX bin, right-click the Sound Design Layers Pile Driver.wav clip,
and choose Create New Timeline Using Selected Clips.
The New Timeline dialog opens with the Timeline Name field selected.
3 In the Timeline Name field, type Reverse Speed Effect and press Return.
The new timeline named Reverse Speed Effect opens.
4 Hide the media pool. Click the Toggle Automation button (red) to turn off automation
and hide the Main bus in the timeline.
5 Zoom in on the timeline clip until you can clearly see its waveform.
6 Mark the clip and check its duration in the play range duration field.
The clip’s duration is around 5 seconds (05:00). Speed changes can also be used to
change clip duration. Once you reverse the clip, you will have the option to adjust the
duration as well.
Applying Speed Changes to a Clip

Previously, you reversed a room tone clip with the Reverse Clip option in the right-
click menu. In this exercise, you’ll first duplicate the clip, so the original is retained as a
reference. Then, use the new Speed Change controls in the Inspector to manipulate its
direction, speed, pitch, and duration. To duplicate the clip, you’ll use the Option-drag
method (Alt-drag for Windows) to simultaneously duplicate and move the duplicate clip
to a new position.

1 Clear the play range.
2 Option/Alt-drag the clip toward the right and move the duplicate down the timeline to
around 8 seconds (08:00).
Now you can clearly see the audio waveform of both clips in the edit page timeline.
3 Select the first clip. Then show the Inspector.
4 In the Inspector Audio panel, click the Speed Change header to expand those controls.
The Speed Change options include controls to change the Direction, Speed, Frames
Per Second, and Duration of the selected clip. Two additional options are important for
sound design: Ripple Sequence and Pitch Correction.

5 Select the Ripple Sequence option.
Doing so will change the duration of the clip in the timeline. If you leave the Ripple
Sequence option deselected, the clip remains at its current length, but the waveforms
reflect the speed change and additional material is included in the visible portion
of the clip.
NOTE Since you are experimenting with this sound effect in a separate
timeline, you don’t have to worry about affecting the other clips in the scene.
Forward Freeze
Reverse
The Direction controls include three icon buttons that indicate the current direction:
Forward, Reverse, or Freeze. At this time, the Freeze control is only for video freeze-
frame control.
6 Click the Reverse button (arrows pointing left) to reverse the selected clip.
Notice the Elastic Wave (W) badge in the lower-left corner of the reversed clip.
7 Play the reversed clip.
As expected, the reversed clip sounds like the opposite of the original clip. Now,
instead of a loud percussion hit that slowly decays (fades out) over time, the reversed
clip slowly fades in, builds to an exciting crescendo, and stops abruptly.

Sounds great. Mission accomplished. However, before going back to the main timeline,
let’s experiment with the Speed Change controls.
If you look at the Speed Change controls, you’ll see that the Speed % field shows the
speed is -100.00. Negative numbers indicate the reversed direction.
Next, you’ll change the clip speed to stretch or compress it. This is similar to stretching
a clip with the Elastic Wave tool. Keep in mind that if you drag too far to the right, you
will return to positive numbers and the clip will no longer be reversed. Also keep in
mind that speed changes cannot be performed during playback.
8 Drag the Speed % dial toward the right to lower the speed and increase the duration.
Listen to the clip.
9 Drag the Speed % dial toward the left to raise the speed and decrease the duration.
Listen to the clip.
10 Click the Reset arrow to the right of the Speed % dial to reset the clip’s speed to 100.00.
Notice that the direction also returned to the forward direction.
11 Uncheck the Pitch Correction option so that the pitch will change along with the speed.
Reverse the clip speed. Repeat steps 8–9. This time, the clips should sound slower or
faster with lower or higher pitch, respectively.
12 Click the Reset button in the upper-right corner of the Speed Change controls to reset
all speed changes.
13 Click the Reverse button to reverse the clip. Hide the Inspector.
You marked a source clip in the media pool, made a new timeline, duplicated a clip,
and reversed it. Awesome! This trick is used all the time in soundtrack and music
production. Chances are, now that you are aware of the reverse-clip effect, you’ll
frequently notice it more in other projects.
NOTE If you didn’t complete the previous exercise, open the 8 Reverse Speed
Effect Finished timeline to catch up.

Syncing Sound Effects to Picture
One of the daily challenges for sound designers and the sound effects editors on their
team is to precisely sync audio clips to video cues. In this exercise, you’ll copy the sound
effect that you just created and paste it into a new track in a different timeline. Then, you’ll
use a new visual feature to sync the sound effect to the picture.
1 Move the playhead to the beginning of the reversed clip. Right-click the reversed clip
and choose Copy.
2 In the timeline dropdown menu, open the 8 Sample Sound Design Scenes timeline.
3 Right-click any track header and choose Add Track > Stereo.
4 Move the playhead to the purple marker at 03:04:04:02.
5 Select the A5 track and press Command-V (macOS) or Ctrl-V (Windows) to paste the
clip in the selected track.
6 Zoom in to the timeline until you can see the clip’s waveform.
7 Solo the A4 and A5 tracks. Play the clip in the timeline and watch the video to see
how it works with the picture and music.
It’s close. But in professional audio, close doesn’t cut it. Luckily, the DaVinci Resolve
Fairlight page includes an awesome set of visual aids to assist with clip timing.

Using Video and Audio Scrollers
for Precise Synchronization
The Fairlight audio timeline includes a set of scrollers that let you compare a frame-accurate
filmstrip of the video track with any track’s audio waveform. You’ll find the controls to show
and hide these scrollers in the timeline options menu.
1 Drag the viewer to the upper-left corner of the screen to make room for the scrollers
at the bottom of the timeline.
2 Click the timeline options pop-up menu to show all the timeline options. Under the
Scroller header, click the Video and Audio 1 icons.
3 Click the timeline options pop-up menu to hide the menu.

At the bottom of the timeline, you’ll see the video scroller and audio scroller 1, which
shows the selected track A5 - Audio 5.
4 If another audio track is showing, click the Audio Scroller 1 Display pop-up and choose
A5 - Audio 5.
In the Video Scroller, each filmstrip frame corresponds to a single frame of video.
Let’s change the zoom level of the filmstrip to include the neighboring clips.
5 In the Video Scroller, right-click the filmstrip and choose Zoom Level > High.
Instead of seeing every frame, the filmstrip now includes a higher range of frames
so that you can see frames from shots on either side of the video transition. The red
vertical lines on the audio and video scrollers represent the timeline playhead.
6 Right-click the filmstrip and choose Zoom Level > Low.

7 Move the playhead back to the purple marker.
As you can see by looking at the video scroller, this is not actually the first frame of the
transition. However, you can drag the scroller left or right to move the playhead to the
desired position.
8 Drag the video scroller to the right until you see the first frame of the transition. It is
the first frame after the green-lit close-up shot of Emiliana.
9 Play the timeline while watching the video scroller, and stop playback when you see the
end of the visual transition.
The timeline playhead and corresponding playhead on the scrollers clearly show that
the waveform finale and end of the transition are close. You could nudge the clip into
position; but instead, let’s use the scrollers and some common keyboard shortcuts
to fix the timing. When working with video scrollers, you can double-click any frame
to move the playhead to that frame. So, if you align the playhead to the end of the
waveform on the clip, you can use editing shortcuts to paste it precisely at the frame
you select on the scroller.
10 Using the reversed clip’s waveform as a guide, move the playhead to the last frame
of the waveform (not the clip).
11 Select the reversed clip and press Command-X (macOS) or Ctrl-X (Windows) to cut
the clip.
A semitransparent version of the clip remains synced to the playhead until you paste it.

12 In the video scroller filmstrip, drag the video scroller toward the right as needed until
you see the first frame of Philip walking down the corridor. Double-click the first frame
of Philip’s shot.
The playhead and the semitransparent version of the clip move to the selected frame.
13 Press Command-V (macOS) or Ctrl-V (Windows) to paste the clip.
The audio transition ends just as the new shot begins.
14 Play the clip to audition it in sync with the video.
This time it sounds perfect! Let’s hide the scrollers before moving on to the next section.
15 Unsolo the A4 and A5 tracks.
16 In the timeline options menu, deselect the Video and Audio 1 scroller icons.
As you just discovered, reverse audio effects are easy to create and sync to picture. Best of
all, you now have the skills to add reverse transitional audio effects to your own soundtracks.
NOTE When using keyboard shortcuts to cut, copy, and paste, you can also press
the JKL keys to reposition the transparent clip before pasting it.
Doubling a Track to
Thicken the Sound
Another common sound design and mixing technique is to double a track to “thicken”
or “fatten” the sound. Doubling a track involves duplicating the contents of one track
into another track and adding effects to one or both tracks. The combination of the two
tracks sounds thicker and richer than the original. This technique is commonly applied
to instrument tracks and background vocals in music production, and to ethereal voices

and sound effects in audio post. In this exercise, you’ll double ADA’s voiceover track and
apply pitch changes and other effects to thicken the sound. First, let’s listen to a finished
example to hear the differences between Emiliana’s and ADA’s voices.
1 In the 8 Sample Sound Design Scenes timeline, solo the A1 track.
2 Play the beginning of the first clip from the yellow marker and listen to the differences
between the two voices. Stop playback after ADA says, “I cannot explain this discrepancy.”
Both voices are clear and easy to understand. Emiliana’s voice sounds real and
present, as if she really were only a few inches away, whereas ADA’s voice sounds more
processed and omnipresent (from all directions), as though it’s coming from multiple
nearby speakers. You’ll learn more about dialogue mixing, dynamics, and equalization
in other lessons, but for now, you’ll focus on the sound design for ADA’s voice to
transform it from a clean human voice to one that sounds as if it is computer generated.
NOTE A “clean” or “dry” sound is one that has no effects or processing applied.
Let’s open a different timeline in which you can double ADA’s voiceover (VO) track and
experiment with her voice.
3 Open the 8 ADA VO test timeline. Press Shift-Z to fit the clips horizontally into
the timeline.
This is the dialogue scene that you worked with in the previous lessons. Track A3
contains the test VO recorded using an actual computer-generated voice. Track A4 is the
human voice recording that you edited in Lesson 3. This track is muted. Tracks A5 and A6
are empty tracks for doubling and experimenting with ADA’s voice. First, let’s listen to
the computer voice, and then play the clean voiceover recording in the A4 track.
4 Show the viewer, if necessary, and move it to the lower-right corner of the screen.

5 Move the playhead to the first blue timeline marker, and press I to mark an In point.
Move the playhead to the second blue marker and press O to mark an Out point.
6 Press Option-/ (slash) in macOS or Alt-/ (slash) in Windows to play from the In to Out
points and hear ADA’s first two phrases with the computer voice.
7 Mute track A3 and unmute track A4. Play from the In to Out points again to hear the
human version of the same phrases. When you’re finished, press Option-X (macOS)
or Alt-X (Windows) to clear the In and Out points.
Let’s thicken the sound of ADA’s voice by copying the clips from track A4 to tracks
A5 and A6.
NOTE The term doubling a track used to refer to creating only two versions
of a track in tape-based music recording. However, when using digital audio
workstations, you can make as many tracks as you need to thicken and enhance
your sound.

Copying and Pasting Multiple Clips
from One Track to Another
The secret to copying and pasting multiple clips from one track to another is to start with the
playhead on the first frame of the track. Technically, you can place the playhead anywhere
when you copy and paste. However, by always starting with your playhead in the same
position, you can guarantee that the clips you paste will be in the exact same positions as
the clips you copied.
1 Press Home to move the playhead to the first frame of the track.
2 Drag the Selection tool across all the clips on the A4 track to select them.
3 Copy the selected clips. Select the A5 track and paste the semitransparent clips into
the A5 track.
4 Select the A6 track and paste the clips again.
Now you have three tracks containing identical clean versions of the ADA VO clips.

Applying Pitch Changes to Clips in the Inspector
One easy way to vary the sound between two identical tracks is to make changes to the
pitch. If you recall, the Inspector includes pitch controls for every clip. In this exercise, you’ll
experiment with pitch changes on several clips to hear the result mixed with the original
sound. Then you’ll apply the pitch changes to all the clips on the track. Let’s keep the A4
track unchanged and experiment with the pitch on the clips in the A5 ADA VO 2 track.
1 Select and solo the A5 track. Create a play range for the first two clips in the A5 track.
Show the Inspector.
The Clip Pitch controls let you lower or raise a clip’s pitch by up to 24 semitones.
With 12 semitones in an octave, you can pitch a clip up or down by two full octaves.
The Cents controls manipulate the clip by hundredths of a semitone and are used for
fine-tuning a clip’s pitch.

Dragging the pitch controls to the left lowers the pitch and is designated by a negative
number. Conversely, dragging to the right raises the pitch. The best way to understand
the power of pitch control is to actually hear it in action.
2 Start looped playback. During looped playback, drag the Clip Pitch slider to each of
the following settings: -1, -5, -10, -20, 0, 1, 5, 10, and 20. When you are finished, stop
looped playback.
As you just heard, subtle pitch changes can sound natural, while more radical changes
can completely transform a voice from human to that of demonic creature (-20) or a
talking mouse (+20).
3 At the far right of the controls, click the Clip Pitch Reset button.
Next, you can try dragging the Cents slider to introduce smaller incremental pitch
changes. Let’s do so while also listening to the A4 track to hear the “doubled” effect.
4 Solo the A4 track so that you can hear both the A4 and A5 tracks during playback.
5 Start looped playback. During looped playback, drag the Cents slider slowly to the left
and then to the right to hear the slight changes in pitch.
6 When you are finished, stop looped playback and reset the pitch controls on the
A5 track.
The pitch controls in the Inspector are perfect for making both large and small pitch
changes to individual clips. However, if you need to change the pitch for an entire
track, it’s better to use the FairlightFX pitch plug-in.
Thickening Cumulative Sound with

Track Level Pitch and Volume Changes
In this exercise, you’ll work with the Pitch FairlightFX plug-in to change the pitch on both
the A5 and A6 tracks. You’ll introduce a slight pitch change on the A5 track to produce a
subtle thickening. Then, you’ll pitch change the A6 track by a full octave to add a deeper,
low-end quality to the voice. After the effects are applied, you’ll adjust the volume levels of
the pitched tracks to create a more blended, “composite” sound.

1 In the Effects Library, drag the Pitch plug-in onto the A5 track header.
The Pitch dialog includes Semitones and Cents controls, as well as a percentage
control for the Dry/Wet output.
2 Start looped playback. Drag the Cents control left to around -30.
3 Solo the A6 ADA VO 3 track to hear it with the other two ADA VO tracks.
4 Drag the Pitch plug-in onto the A6 track header. Lower the Pitch on the A6 ADA VO 3
track by -12 semitones.

As you can see, each plug-in panel includes the track’s name, so you can differentiate
between each dialog. This is also convenient when making changes to more than one
plug-in at a time.
NOTE Mixing multiple versions of the same audio clip is very similar to the
process of image compositing in which you apply blend modes to multiple
versions of the same video clip. When compositing images, you often lower
the opacity of one or more of the blended clips for different effects. Similarly,
in audio track doubling, you adjust the volume levels on different tracks to
blend the various sounds without overpowering the original track.
Once you’ve added pitch changes to your tracks, you can adjust the volume levels right
in the Inspector. Let’s start by lowering the level of the A6 track.
5 Click the A6 ADA VO 3 track header to select that track. In the Inspector, drag the Track
Level Volume slider to the left until the heavily pitched voice is barely audible. Your goal
is to include it as an accent to enhance and thicken the sound of the original track. If
you aren’t sure what level to use, try a volume level between -18 and 21.
6 Stop looped playback. Close the Pitch controls.
Perhaps you’re thinking, why bother adding the -12 semitone track if you are turning
it down so much? It’s all about the finesse. A track pitched an octave lower can really
beef-up the low end and thicken a sound. To prove that this track is worth the trouble,
let’s toggle the track’s Solo button off and on during playback.
7 Start looped playback, if necessary. Click the Solo button on the A6 track off and on
several times to hear the combined tracks with and without the A6 track. When you’re
finished, leave the Solo button turned on.
Hearing is believing.
It’s time to lower the volume level of the A5 track. This time, instead of dragging the
Volume slider in the Inspector, you’ll drag the Volume field in the track header. This is
a quick and easy way to adjust track levels as you work, without the need to open the
mixer or Inspector.

8 Continue with looped playback. In the A5 track’s header, drag downward over the
volume field to around -7.20 to better blend it into the mix.
9 Unsolo the A4, A5, and A6 tracks. Set a play range between the two blue markers,
if necessary. Start looped playback.
10 During looped playback, mute the A5 and A6 tracks to hear the clean voiceover.
Unmute the A5 and A6 tracks to hear the doubled results. Feel free to adjust the levels
of the A5 and A6 tracks to taste.
11 Hide the Inspector.
Excellent. Not only did you successfully thicken ADA’s voice, but you also learned how to
apply subtle and dramatic pitch changes to clips and tracks. However, ADA still sounds
human. In the next exercise, you’ll apply another plug-in to increase the number of voices
from the A4 track.
NOTE Sound designers and music mixers sometimes use 12 or more tracks of the
same audio clip with slight pitch and pan changes applied to make the cumulative
sound more powerful and help it stand out in the finished mix.
Multiplying Voices Using

the Chorus Plug-In
Another sound design technique to thicken sound is to use a Chorus plug-in. As the name
suggests, this plug-in emulates the sound of multiple simultaneous voices to suggest a
vocal chorus. Like a real chorus, slight timing and pitch differences between the voices can
thicken the overall sound. The FairlightFX Chorus plug-in samples the input and slightly
detunes it (using minor pitch changes) and mixes it with the original signal. The differences
between voices can be slight or dramatic depending on the settings.

1 Solo the A4 ADA VO 1 track.
2 In the A4 track, set a play range around the first two clips.
3 In the Effects Library, drag the Chorus plug-in to the A4 track header. Then close the
Effects Library.
The Chorus dialog opens, displaying a set of graphs: on the left is the graph of the time
difference between voices, and to the right is an animated graph of the signal after the
altered parameters are applied.
Let’s listen to the first two clips with the default Chorus preset applied and then listen
to the same clip with the Dramatic preset.
4 Start looped playback.

5 In the Chorus preset dropdown menu, choose Dramatic to apply and audition that
preset during playback.
Wow. The clip now sounds fuller and more dramatic.
6 Continue looped playback and unsolo the track to hear it played along with the other
ADA VO tracks.
7 Toggle the Chorus Bypass button (red switch) off and on during playback to hear the
cumulative effect of the Chorus plug-in on the original sound and the combination of
all three tracks. When you are finished, leave the Bypass button off (red).
The Dramatic preset is perfect for ADA’s voiceover; however, let’s take a moment to
try the manual settings to create your own chorus sound.
8 Solo the A4 track. Start looped playback, if necessary.
9 In the upper-right corner of the Chorus dialog, click the Reset button to return to the
default settings.
Let’s start by adjusting the Delay settings to the far left of the controls area. The Delay
settings control the length of delay between the original sound and the Chorus effect.
10 Drag the Delay knob to the right to increase the length of the chorus, as indicated by
the delay lines displayed in dark blue in the graph.
11 Under the Voice controls, drag the Separation control to increase the time separation
of the delay voices.

12 Under the Width controls, drag the Expansion control to set the left/right length
differences (phase offset) for stereo output.
The Chorus plug-in includes a low-frequency oscillator (LFO) that is mixed with the
signal to create modulation effects. The green bar in the Modulation controls area
shows the oscillating pattern.
13 In the Modulation controls area of the Chorus dialog, watch the bright green dot as
it oscillates back and forth on the green Modulation graph. Drag the Frequency dial
to the right to increase the oscillator’s frequency and, therefore, the speed of the
modulating pattern.
14 Drag the Pitch control to the right to increase the amount of pitch change for a heavier
vibrato (fluctuations in pitch) effect.
15 Drag the Level control to the right to increase the tremolo (fluctuations in volume
level) effect.
Below the Modulation graph are six waveform shape buttons: (from left to right) sine,
triangle, saw 1, saw 2, square, and random.
16 Click the random shape button on the far right.
The random oscillator shape adds a synthetic feel to the chorus effect that will help
dehumanize ADA’s voice. The overall effect will be much more pronounced when you
increase the Dry/Wet Output control.
The last two controls to the right are Feedback and Output. The Feedback controls
include an Amount control to adjust the percentage of the signal fed back to the
Chorus Delay line, and a Blend control that lets you change the amount of signal that
bleeds into the opposite channel for stereo signals. Increasing the Feedback Amount
value adds more of the Chorus effect to the signal, while lowering this value adds
more of the inverted Chorus effect to the signal. A value of 0 has no effect, whereas

the more you increase or decrease the Amount value, the more gradually pronounced
the Chorus sound becomes.
17 Drag the Amount control to the right to 99.
Increasing the Dry/Wet Output control will increase the percentage of the chorus
effect that is audible.
18 Drag the Dry/Wet control to the right to 100% to hear only the chorus effect.
19 Drag the Dry/Wet control to the left to slowly lower the wet percentage during playback.
20 Experiment with the different settings. When you are finished, reset the plug-in
controls and choose the Dramatic preset. Close the Chorus panel.
21 Unsolo the A4 track and play the dialogue scene from the first blue marker to hear the
new and improved (dehumanized) voice with the other characters.
ADA’s voice no longer sounds like this author’s feeble attempt at recording voiceover.
You’ll later get an opportunity to further alter ADA’s voice. For now, let’s move on to the
next sound design technique.

Adding Depth with
Time-Based Plug‑Ins
When it comes to motion picture storytelling, both the director of photography and the
sound designer must consider height, width, and depth when composing a scene. Just
as the director of photography uses light, shadows, reflections, and focus to add scenic
depth between the foreground and background elements, the sound designer uses reverb
and time-based plug-ins to add audible delay, reflections, and reverberation in a scene to
depict depth in the soundtrack.
Evaluating Foley Sound Effects

You have two ways to add Foley sound effects to your soundtrack. The first is to record
each cue as a live performance during playback, which requires a recording studio and
Foley artist to perform the various movements in sync with the picture. You can apply
the Fairlight ADR tools to Foley recordings the same way you use them for dialogue
replacement. The second method for adding Foley sound effects is to acquire them from
a sound library or service. This method may be less expensive but requires more editing
because purchased effects won’t be perfectly timed to your onscreen action. Whichever
solution you use, you’ll still need to enhance the sound effects to fit the spatial elements of
the scene.
Let’s start by opening a different timeline and listening to a variety of Foley footsteps.
As you work with the different examples, you’ll see that many of the techniques that you
used to edit and enhance dialogue have been applied to the Foley footsteps.
1 Open the 8 Footsteps timeline.
This timeline includes examples of several Foley footstep recordings and sound
design techniques.
2 Hide the viewer. Show the Inspector, Effects Library, and the Markers index in List view.
3 Modify the Markers list columns to clearly see the Name column.

4 Mark the first clip in the A1 track and select the clip to see it in the Inspector. Click the
Effects tab in the Inspector to see any effects applied to the clip.
In the Inspector, you can see that this clip has a Noise Reduction plug-in.
5 Start looped playback. In the Inspector, click the Noise Reduction Bypass button to
toggle the plug-in off and on during playback.
Did you notice that the soft shoes in this recording were a bit squeaky when they bent
and flexed? If so, you have the discerning ears of a sound designer! Of course, these
squeaking shoes may offer more realism than most scenes call for—but if the shoe fits….
Still, the Noise Reduction plug-in significantly reduced the background noise,
demonstrating that effects designed to improve dialogue clarity can also be applied
to sound effects.
Let’s move on to track A2 Footsteps 2 to hear the next example.
6 Mark and select the clip in the A2 track.
Foley sound effects acquired from a sound library or service usually include clip names
that describe the types of shoes, surface, and action used in their recording. For
example, the clip on the A2 track is named Soft Shoes On Wood Pause Turn Run.m4a.

7 Play the clip. Listen to hear if the recording lives up to its name.
That’s about as generic a sound as you can get for soft shoes on wood. In this
example, no plug-ins were applied to either the clip or the track. However, the
volume overlay includes keyframes to balance the levels of the footsteps. One thing
that’s missing from this clip is the sense of space. Are these footsteps in a hallway?
A bedroom? A confined bathroom or a resonant cathedral?
8 Set a play range around the two clips in the A3 Footsteps 3 track.
This track includes two identical clips named Hard Shoes On Wood.m4a.
9 Play the clips and listen to the sound of the hard shoes on wood.
Did you notice that this clip has a bit of unpleasant low-level noise between steps? Let’s
apply a Gate to clean up the track.
10 Select the A3 track. Show the mixer. On the A3 channel strip, double-click the
Dynamics control.
11 In the Dynamics controls panel, click the Gate button to turn on the default Gate
dynamics processing.
The Gate processing instantly cleaned up the sound of the individual footsteps.
Notice that the gate was also applied to the A4 track, which includes the same two
footstep clips.
12 Stop playback. Hide the Dynamics window and the mixer.
Once again, the footsteps live up to their name, but nothing else. It’s time to give
these footsteps some depth.

Applying Multiple Time-Based Plug-Ins
Time-based effects use varying amounts of delay to manipulate the perception of time, and
therefore the aural illusion of space. An obvious example is echoing footsteps in a cave.
The more delay between those echoing footsteps, the larger the perceived size of the cave.
One of the best ways to explore different plug-ins is to add them all to a track and “test
drive” each plug-in during playback. In this exercise, you’ll audition different plug-ins using
bypass switches and presets to add realistic depth to the Hard Shoes on Wood Foley clips.
Along the way, you’ll also explore different types of FairlightFX time-based plug-ins.
1 Set a play range around the two clips in the A4 Test Drive track.
The A4 track already has Gate processing applied to it.
2 Select the A4 Test Drive track header to show the track parameters in the Inspector.
3 In the Effects Library, drag the following plug-ins to the A4 Test Drive track header:
Chorus, Delay, Echo, and Reverb.
4 Close all the plug-in windows. Hide the Effects Library and the Index.
5 In the Inspector, show the Effects panel. Option-click any of the plug-in effect headers
to compress all of them at once. Then, in the Inspector, click the bypass switch on each
plug-in to turn them all off.
The effects are applied, and now you can test each one during looped playback. In
the previous exercise, you used the Chorus plug-in to thicken a voiceover track. Now,
you’ll use the default Chorus setting to add a bit of perceived depth to an otherwise
“flat” Foley recording.
6 Start looped playback. In the Inspector, click the Chorus bypass switch to turn on the
effect. Toggle the bypass switch off and on to evaluate the effect in the track.
The effect is subtle, but it definitely adds a hint of depth to the track, as well as weight
and grit to the footsteps. Let’s try the next example.
7 Continue looped playback. Turn off the Chorus effect and turn on the Delay.

Clearly, this effect’s default settings are more pronounced and distracting.
8 In the Inspector, to the far right of the Delay controls, click the Customize button to
open the Delay panel.
The FairlightFX Delay is a standard stereo delay effect that you can use for track
doubling, early reflection generation, and harmonic enhancement.
9 Drag the Delay Time control all the way to the left to remove the delay, and then slowly
drag it to the right to add a slight delay to the footsteps. Try a value between 30 and 35
milliseconds (ms). Set the Dry/Wet amount to around 15 so that only 15% of the output
includes the delayed effect.
10 Toggle the Delay bypass off and on to compare the track without and with the delay.
With the delay turned on, you should hear a slight delay that creates the illusion of
sound reflecting off the ceiling and walls.
It’s amazing that a small amount of delay can make a sound seem as if it is coming
from an actual space. How is that possible? Because our hearing is based on binaural
perception (two ears) and the differences in loudness, frequency, reflections, and
reverberations in those ears. Your job as the sound designer is to apply the amount of
delay necessary for the space depicted on the screen.
11 Close the Delay panel. In the Inspector, turn off the Delay plug-in.
12 Continue looped playback. Turn on the Echo plug-in.

This Echo default sounds a bit like a tap-dancing lesson.
This classic Echo effect includes a graph showing the timing and intensity of the
generated echoes on each channel, as well as an Output meter that displays the level
of the resulting signal.
Let’s apply some of the Echo presets.
13 Show the Echo panel. Try each of the presets starting with Fast Ping Pong to hear four
variations of Echo applied to the footsteps.
14 When you’re finished, close the Echo panel and bypass the effect.
If you recall, you used the Echo Fast Ping Pong preset in Lesson 1 when you were
building that exciting trailer soundtrack. It worked great for that effect but isn’t as
effective here. Echo is a powerful tool, but a little bit goes a long way. When you need
it, you’ll know where it is and how to apply it.
NOTE You’ll find detailed information about all the FairlightFX plug-ins
and their controls in the DaVinci Resolve 18 User Manual, available in the
application’s Help menu.
Last, but not least, is the all-powerful Reverb plug-in, which is one of the most useful
effects in audio post-production.

15 Start playback, if necessary, and turn on the Reverb plug-in.
You are probably surprised at how bad the Reverb effect sounds. That isn’t the plug-
in’s fault; it’s actually due to the Gate that’s applied to the track. In this example, the
gate removes some of the low-level sounds necessary for simulating spatial sound
reflections and reverberation.
16 Show the mixer. In the A4 Test Drive track, open the Dynamics panel and turn off the
Gate processing. Close the Dynamics panel.
Suddenly, the footsteps sound as if they are in an actual space. Unfortunately, now the
low-level noise is also audible, which shows that presets and default settings will only
get you so far in sound design.
How Loud Should Sound Effects Be?

The first rule of sound effects levels is that there are no rules, other than not making
sound effects too loud or too quiet. Remember, dialogue is king, so all the sound effects
are there to support story, characters, mood, and audience perception. How loud should
sound effects such as Foley footsteps be? That depends on the scene, the environment,
and the artistic instincts of the sound designer. If the soundtrack is supposed to sound
“realistic,” for example, footsteps in a snow-covered field will probably sound much quieter
than tap shoes in a high-rise stairwell. The audience’s expectation for sound levels also
changes with the type of shot in view. A close-up shot of work boots crunching through
the snow should be mixed louder and with more “presence” than a wide shot of the same
boots on snow. Keep in mind that sound design is a creative art form, and therefore a
sound designer and director can choose to use completely unrealistic sound levels just for
dramatic or comedic effect. For example, a child walking into her sleeping parent’s room
could have footsteps that sound like a charging elephant, or footsteps so light she seems
to glide across the room.
Here are a few guidelines for starting levels:
— Dialogue: Average speech -12 dB (-10 dB loud voice to -15 dB soft voice, -6 dB scream,
-20 dB whisper)
— Music: Underscoring during dialogue -18 to -20 dB, music without dialogue
-12 to -15 dB
— Sound Effects: -10 to -20 dB
— Loud SFX: Explosions and other highly impactful SFX peak at -6 to -8 dB

Balancing Clip Levels Before Adding Effects
Just as with dialogue tracks, you should first balance your effects tracks levels in the
context of the scene. Also similar to working with dialogue tracks, balance the effects clips
within the track. Try not to apply the track fader until you are ready for mixing.
1 In the Inspector, turn off the Reverb plug-in.
2 Using the Selection tool, select both clips in the A4 track so you can adjust their clip
levels simultaneously in the Inspector.
3 Start looped playback. Watch the A4 track’s levels in the mixer.
The levels are peaking well into the red, so they definitely must be lowered. Because
these clips don’t have to balance with any dialogue, you can set them so their peaks
are within the yellow range of the meter, around -18 to -12 dB.
4 In the Inspector, lower the Multiple Clips Volume level to between -6 and -8 dB.
5 Stop playback. Hide the mixer.
At this level, the slight background noise is no longer noticeable, so you can proceed with
the Reverb without gate processing.

How Do We Interpret Spaces Through Sounds?
Chances are that you can instantly recognize the sound of a dog barking and even guess
the general size and breed of the dog based on its pitch and power. Even in the dark, with
no visual information, we can guess our proximity to the dog and assess whether it is
nearby, in the house next door, in a concrete garage, or at the bottom of a deep well.
How do we determine all that information from sound alone? The human brain can
instantly process a sound based on recognition. If we don’t recognize a sound, we guess at
its nature and origin based on similarities with other familiar sounds. We also estimate the
size and distance of the source based on its volume level and estimate its location based
on triangulating the signal with our built-in stereo sensors (ears).
To identify the general size and surface of a space, we subconsciously use three acoustical
elements: the original sound, the early reflections on surfaces, and the late reverberations
of the sound bouncing off the surfaces in the area. Bright early reflections indicate hard,
smooth surfaces such as tile, marble, or glass; whereas dull, muffled, or muted early
reflections suggest grass, books, carpet, or padded walls.
Sound designers and sound mixers apply these acoustic principles to emulate realistic
spaces and events when building and mixing soundtracks.
To ensure clean recordings, sound stages and recording studios are acoustically treated
to absorb and minimize early and late reverberations. Then, spatial simulators, such as
the FairlightFX Reverb, are applied to those non-reverberant recordings to simulate the
acoustic space appropriate to the scene.
Simulating Spaces with Reverb

Resolve’s powerful FairlightFX Reverb plug-in can instantly add a sense of scale and space
to your tracks. This spatial simulation plug-in displays a graphical 3D cube interface with
which you can control corresponding reflections and reverberations based on the size and
shape of the “room.” Additionally, various controls let you take a “dry” recording and make
it sound as through it’s in a live, reverberant space.
1 Select the A4 track.

2 In the Inspector, turn on the Reverb plug-in. Click the Reverb plug-in header to expand
it, if necessary. Click the Customize button to show the Reverb dialog.
The Reverb dialog controls are fairly self-explanatory because they’re based on the
size of a simulated 3D room in which you can adjust the combination of the original
signal (Direct), early reflections (ER), and late reverberations (Reverb).
In the upper left of the dialog, the teal-colored 3D rectangle represents the room size.
The graph to the right roughly visualizes (from left to right) the reverb’s effect on the
audio signal. The controls at the bottom let you fine-tune the Reverb timing as well as
Early Reflection tone and Reverb tone. The controls in the lower right adjust the levels
of the Direct signal (white vertical line), Early reflections, and Reverb levels as depicted
on the graph in blue.
Let’s start by listening to the first two presets, as they are a great way see and hear
the extreme differences between small and large spaces.
3 Start looped playback. In the Reverb dialog, choose the Bathroom preset. Toggle the
Bypass button off and on to hear the footsteps without and with the Bathroom preset.
Notice that the quick, reflective sounds from the Bathroom preset give the aural
impression of a small space with highly reflective surfaces.

4 Choose the Cathedral preset to hear the enormous-sounding space created by
increasing the Reverb Time, Early Reflection tone, and Reverb tone.
Notice that the size of the room displayed to the left correlates to the length of the
reverb tail to the right.
As mentioned earlier, textile surfaces such as marble and wood emit varying degrees
reflective qualities. In the Reverb dialog, the Early Reflection tone and Reverb tone
areas offer equalization controls to independently modify the tone of the reflections
and reverb to suit the textile characteristics of the room. Let’s compare the sound
of three different small spaces, each with different tone settings. Listen for the
differences in reflective sound between the Studio presets and the Bathroom preset.
5 Continue looped playback. Choose the Studio2 preset, and listen to the dull, reflection-
absorbent sound. Then, choose the Bathroom preset to hear a reflective, “tiled” room
sound. Next, try the Studio1 preset. Switch between these three presets to compare
their Early Reflection tone and Reverb tone settings.
Could you hear the difference in the tone, early reflections, and reverberations of the
presets? Both of the Studio presets have duller, less reflective sounds, which suggest
sound-absorbing materials on the walls and ceiling. The Bathroom preset, on the other
hand, has heavy early reflection that indicates more reflective surfaces such as tile,
glass, or polished metal.
Let’s manually change the size and sound of the room to a long corridor.
6 Stop playback. Reset the Reverb plug-in.

7 Drag the control handle (dot) in the front-right corner of the 3D room to create a
rectangular room with the following dimensions: Height 4.00, Length 30.00, Width 5.00.
TIP Hold Shift while dragging parameter controls for refined incremental
control. You can also double-click any control knob to reset it to the default value.
8 Start looped playback. In the Reverb controls, drag the Reverb Time to the right and
left to extend and shorten the reverb length. Try setting it at around 1400 ms.
This 3D shape shows a long corridor, so let’s adjust the sound to match the space.
To do so, you’ll use the distance control to increase the simulated distance between
the virtual source and the virtual listener.
9 Drag the Distance slider to around 20.00 m (meters).
Next, you’ll adjust the Brightness control to change the shape of the decay time for the
higher frequencies. At maximum brightness levels, the high frequency decay time is
identical to any other frequency. Lower brightness levels result in shorter decay times
and a duller sound.

10 Drag the Brightness control to the right and left to hear the difference, and then set a
final level around 25.00%.
The Output controls allow you to combine all audio processing results into a single
output signal. These controls include a Dry/Wet control to determine the percentage
of the original to processed signal, along with independently adjustable Direct, ER
(early reflection), and Reverb (late reverberation) controls.
Early reflections and reverb are also used to depict the size of a space and how far the
listener is from the original sound. As the name suggests, early reflections are the first
reflections that reach the listener’s ears, while subsequent reverberations continue to
bounce about the space as they make their way to the listener. It is the combination of
these two elements that give scale and distance to acoustic spaces.
11 While looking at the blue graph, drag the ER control to the far right and far left to hear
the illusion of being closer to or farther from the original sound. Set the ER to around
-30 dB. Click the Reverb’s bypass switch on and off to hear the clip without and with
the reverb.
Let’s tweak the Output controls.

You can see that the early reflection is depicted by the loosely spaced vertical
blue lines between the direct signal (white line) and the blue slope of the late
reverberations.
12 Drag the ER slider to the right to around -4.5 dB to increase the early reflections.
13 While watching the graph, drag the Reverb control to the left to lower the level of the
late reverberations to around -35.5 dB.
You can hear and see the minimal reverberation in the graph.
14 Set the Reverb to around -12.0 dB. Stop playback.
Fabulous. You’ve created an awesome-sounding corridor. Let’s save it.
Saving a Customized Preset

After you have customized a preset, you can save it for use in another scene in the same
project or in another project altogether. In this exercise, you’ll save the settings that you
just created for the Corridor reverb.

1 Click the + (Add Preset) button.
2 In the Reverb Preset dialog, type Corridor. Press Return or click OK.
TIP When naming presets and sound effects, it’s always a good idea to give
them clear, self-explanatory names. For example, a corridor is always a corridor,
while a hall could be a hallway or a concert hall.
The Preset pop-up updates to show the current preset, Corridor. You can select this
preset from the list at any time, and even update it and resave as a different preset.
3 With the Corridor preset selected, increase the Reverb Time to around 2922 ms, and in
the Output controls, increase the Reverb level to around -5.1 dB.

An asterisk after the preset’s name indicates that changes were applied to the current
preset. You can save over the original preset or save a new version. Let’s save these
changes as a different preset.
4 Click the Add Preset button.
A Reverb Preset dialog opens with the option to update the current preset or create
a new one.
5 Click Create. Name the new preset Corridor 2 wet and press Return.
6 Click the preset menu to see the two new plug-ins in the list.
7 Start looped playback. Switch between the Corridor and Corridor 2 wet presets to
compare them. When you’re finished, stop playback.
The best part of saving presets is that you can use them in any Resolve project on
your system.
Mixing and Matching Time-Based Plug-Ins

Because you already have four plug-ins applied to the A4 Test Drive track, this is a great
time to experiment with using the plug-ins separately and in combination. Before moving
on, take a moment to test these plug-ins, presets, and controls alone and in combination.
For example, try combining the Chorus and the Reverb plug-ins for a more realistic sound.
Keep in mind that you can use the bypass switches to toggle the plug-ins off and on while

you work. Also, feel free to try the parameter controls in the Inspector or on the effect’s
panel to experiment with different settings. Best of all, you can open as many effect dialog
panels as needed while you work. Have fun. When you are finished, stop playback and
close all the open plug-in dialog windows.
Creating Physical Sound

Barriers with EQ
Another element of professional sound design is limiting high frequencies to create
realistic aural obstructions to match the source sound to the listener’s perspective.
You can limit frequencies of an individual clip in the Inspector or EQ an entire track in
the mixer.
In this example, you’ll further transform the footsteps so they sound as though they are
coming from a corridor on the other side of a sealed door in a spaceship. To do so, you’ll
use a low-pass filter in the track Equalizer to eliminate the high-frequency sounds just as
a door would do in the real world.
How Do Physical Barriers Affect Sound?

Imagine you are in a pitch-black room. Somehow, you can still recognize whether the
person speaking to you is facing you or has her back to you. You can also determine the
difference between the speech of someone within your room and the same person at the
same volume level and distance positioned on the other side of a door, window, or wall.
How do we know? Our minds can interpret these differences based on the clarity of the
sound and the strength and range of audible frequencies without any visual clues.
In the real world, the best sound quality and clarity occurs when a sound source is in close
proximity to the listener. The clarity of a sound source diminishes with a change in source
position and orientation or the placement of a physical obstruction between the source
and the listener This aural compromise occurs because such changes alter the balance
of certain sound frequencies: The greater the obstruction or positional change, the more
limited the high and mid-high frequencies that reach the listener.
Why don’t we hear the high frequencies through walls? In a nutshell, high-frequency
sound waves are relatively short, and therefore more easily absorbed by solid materials.
Low-frequency sound waves are much longer and require more power to become loud
enough for human ears to detect. As a result, lower frequencies not only have the power
to reflect and bounce around a room, they can also resonate within and through walls,
doors, and windows.

If you’ve ever been in a hotel room or apartment with noisy neighbors, you know it’s
the booming low to low-mid frequencies of their music, television, and shouting that
penetrates your walls to drive you crazy.
1 Play the clips in the A5 Finished track to hear the finished footsteps with the EQ’s low-
pass filter applied.
Impressive, right? It absolutely sounds as if the footsteps are coming from a long room
on the other side of a sealed door in a spaceship. (You probably noticed that one of the
footsteps clips was split into short sections, each containing a single footstep, which
makes it easier to sync the individual steps to picture.)
Now, it’s your turn to recreate that sound by applying the 6-band Equalizer to the A4
track. First, let’s streamline the interface.
2 Select the A4 track and mark the first clip for looped playback.
3 If necessary, hide the Effects Library and the Inspector.
4 Show the mixer. In the A5 channel strip, look at the effects slots and EQ graph to see
that both the Reverb effect and EQ are applied and active.
5 In the A4 channel strip, double-click the EQ control to open the EQ window.

The Equalizer window opens for the Test Drive track.
This EQ window is very similar to the 4-band EQ that you used in the Inspector to detect
sibilance in Lesson 7. However, the track EQ includes six bands of equalization with
graphical and numeric controls for attenuating (lowering) and boosting (raising)
ranges of audio frequencies on each track. Bands 1 and 6 are primarily used as high-
and low-pass filters. The middle bands control the Low (L) Mid-Low (ML), Mid-High
(MH), and High (H) frequencies.
6 In the Equalizer window, click the Band 6 button to turn it on.
7 Start looped playback. Slowly drag the Band 6 handle to the left until the lower part
of the low-pass filter curve reaches 1k.

The footsteps sound as though they were limited by a physical barrier of some kind.
8 Click the A5 track header to open that track’s Equalizer window.
As you can see, the A5 track includes a high-pass filter (Band 1), and Band 3 has been
boosted at around 70 Hz. Let’s do the same to the A4 track.
9 Select the A4 track. In the Equalizer window for the Test Drive track, click the Band 1
button to turn it on. In the graph, drag the Band 3 handle up to the +5 dB line (one
line above 0). In the Band 3 controls, drag the Frequency control to the left until it
reads 70 Hz.
10 Stop playback. Close the Equalizer window.

NOTE Filtering out all the high frequencies will also diminish the volume level.
You can always raise the output level (gain) of the EQ with the Gain slider on the
EQ dialog. You can also raise the level of the clips in the timeline or track in the
mixer, as needed.
Now the EQ graphs for the A4 and A5 tracks match.
11 Hide the mixer and stop playback.
This technique of applying a low-pass filter to limit frequencies can be used for
dialogue, music, sound effects, and anything else that needs to sound obstructed
in your soundtrack.
This ends your exploration of sound design with footsteps. Let’s take a moment
to examine a finished mix to see and hear how the techniques you’ve learned in
this lesson can be combined to create finished effects.
NOTE Frequency filters don’t have to be extreme to be effective. For

example, in a scene in which a character turns his back to the camera, the high
frequencies would naturally be limited. So, to simulate this, you would simply
apply a high-frequency shelf to reduce the high to mid-high frequencies, or a
low-pass filter to eliminate them. In the Band 6 filter type pop-up menu, you
can change from a low-pass filter to a high-shelf filter.
Working with Foley Sound Effects

Now that you’ve explored different sound design techniques for making sound effects
fit the space within the scene, let’s step back and look at a few advanced techniques for
adding Foley sound effects to the timeline. In this set of exercises, you’ll work with several
professional Foley sound effects from the Fairlight Sound Library to add Foley sounds
to a scene. In the first exercise, you’ll set a sync point for precision alignment. Then,
you’ll explore the Foley Sampler plug-in with which you can assign sound effects to MIDI
keyboard keys and record them to the timeline in sync with the picture.

Using a Sync Point for Precision Alignment
When working with sound effects, you can use different methods for syncing them to the
timeline. Sometimes you base your sync on the head or tail of the sound clip. Other times,
there is a specific frame in the clip that needs to perfectly align with the picture. In that
case, you can use the playhead in the Sound Library to set a sync point that will align with
the playhead in the timeline when you audition the clip.
For this example, you’ll see a clip where Philip is digging around in a bin, with barely any
sound to go with the clip. Therefore, you’ll need to find a Foley sound effect in the Sound
Library that will work. Once you find the right clip, you’ll analyze the audio waveform and
the video clip to determine the best sync point. Keep in mind that the audience’s minds will
believe what they hear, as long as it seems to be in sync with the picture. Hence, the need
for using a sync point. Let’s try it.
1 Open the 8 Foley SFX and Foley Sampler Start timeline.
2 If necessary, open the viewer as a separate window and hide the meters at the top of
the interface.
3 Play the second clip in the A1 track.
The sound where Philip digs around in the bin looking for tools is a bit lackluster. Let’s
find a suitable sound effect that will enhance the drama of his search, as well as add
another level of realism to the soundtrack.
4 In the Interface toolbar, click the Sound Library button to show the Sound Library.

5 Click the Database button to the right of the search field to show the Database
menu. In the Database dropdown menu, choose either sound_fx or Fairlight Sound
Library if available.
If you recall, this is the database where you imported the sound effects in Lesson 1.
NOTE If you did not follow all the steps to import a sound library in Lesson 1,
please go to that section of the book and follow those steps before continuing
to the next step.
Now, you can find a sound effect to audition in the Sound Library.
6 In the Sound Library search field, type backpack.

A foley sound effect titled Backback Bookbag Rummage appears in the results list. This
is the sound that you’ll use when Philip rummages around in the bins. The trouble is
that the effect doesn’t actually sync with his movement. No problem. In most cases,
syncing just one specific moment of a clip with a generic sound effect will often sell the
effect for the rest of the scene.
7 Select the sound in the list and preview it in the Sound Library. As you play the
rummaging sound effect, watch the playhead move across the waveform and listen for
any distinctive moments in the clip.
For the most part, it’s just a lot of rooting and rummaging sound. That is, until the
rather distinctive sound of a hand whipping out of the backpack. This is exactly the
kind of Foley crescendo that can be synced to Philip’s hand as he pulls it out of the
first bin.
In a few minutes, you’ll audition the sound effect to the A2 FoleySFX track. First, you’ll
need to set your sync point in the timeline with the playhead, as well as a sync point in
the Sound Library with the preview playhead.
8 In the timeline, move the playhead to the blue marker above the second clip in the
A1 track.
This marker position is where Philip’s hand is almost all the way out of the bin.

9 In the Sound Library, use the JKL keys to move the playhead back and forth over the
loudest part of the waveform near the middle of the sound effect. That is the section
you will sync to the video. Refine the playhead position so the playhead is just to the
right of the loudest part of the waveform.
10 Click the Set Sync Point button, to the left of the In Point and Out Point buttons, to set
a sync point at the playhead position.
A green playhead appears over the waveform in the Results list to indicate where the
sync point is currently set. You can set a new sync point anytime by simply moving the
playhead to a new position over the preview clip’s waveform and clicking the Set Sync
Point button.
Before auditioning the clip in the timeline, it’s a good idea to change the current In
point of the sound effect, because at the moment the sound effect is much longer
than needed. Let’s set an In point 3 seconds prior to the sync point.
11 In the Sound Library, press Shift-Left Arrow three times to move the preview playhead
3 seconds to the left. Then press I or click the In Point button.
12 In the timeline, select the A2 Foley SFX track and make sure that the playhead is in
position at the blue marker over the desired clip.

13 Click the Audition button to add the clip to the selected track, using the sync point and
timeline playhead for sync alignment. Play the clip in the timeline to see and hear how
well the Foley sound effect works with the video.
Pretty cool, right? It sounds as if the backpack rummaging sound was part of the
recorded scene all along. Using this type of Foley fx sleight of hand (pun intended) is a
great way to enhance your soundtracks. The volume level may be a little intense, but
the alignment and content works great.
14 Feel free to finesse the sound effect clip’s levels and timing to taste.
15 When you’re finished, click the Confirm button in the Sound Library to commit the
sound effect to the timeline.
Now that you know how to set a sync point in the Sound Library, let’s move on to re-
recording sound effects to the timeline with the Foley Sampler plug-in.
Exploring the Foley Sampler

The Foley Sampler plug-in is a built-in sampler FairlightFX plug-in that makes it easy to add
sound effects that you want to play using a keyboard, pad, or other MIDI performance
device connected to your computer to add timed sound effects to sync with onscreen
visuals. This powerful plug-in has also been designed to simplify the process of recording
performed audio cues on the current track to which the sampler has been added.
In this exercise, you’ll start by adding the Backpack Rummaging Foley sound effect to
the Foley Sampler to see how it works as a sampled sound effect that can be performed
with a MIDI keyboard or mouse. Then you’ll add Foley footsteps to the Foley Sampler to
demonstrate how to map additional sounds to the sampler. Finally, you’ll learn how to
record Foley Sampler sound effects into a track, in time to the footfalls onscreen.

The overall goal is to map Foley footstep sounds to the Foley Sampler so you can record
them in sync with the video and then apply sound design so the recorded Foley Sampler
footsteps sound as though they are happening within the diegetic context of the scene.
1 Move the playhead to the beginning of the timeline and play the first two clips in the
A1 track. During playback, pay close attention to Emiliana’s footsteps because you will
re-record them with the Foley Sample plug-in shortly.
2 Show the mixer and the Effects Library.
3 Drag the Foley Sampler plug-in to the A3 Foley Sampler track header. Hide the
Effects Library.
When you dragged the Foley Sampler to the A3 track, not only did the Foley Sampler
window open, but it was also automatically patched as an input instrument ready for
recording to the A3 track.
At this point, the Foley Sampler is ready to be used, but by default it has no samples
loaded to play. Next, you’ll add a sound effect from the Sound Library.
NOTE If you have a MIDI controller of some kind connected to your computer and
properly configured, it will appear in the MIDI pop-up menu at the upper-right
corner of the Foley Sampler window (next to the Keyboard button). Choose your
device from this menu, and the Keyboard button will highlight to show it’s enabled.

Adding Sound Effects to the Foley Sampler
There are three ways to add prerecorded sound effects to the Foley Sampler. You can drag
and drop a sound effect from the Sound Library or media pool onto the Foley Sampler
window. Another method is to click the Foley Sampler window’s Option menu and choose
one of the Add or Import sample options. Finally, you can simply drag an audio file in a
supported format from the file system on your computer onto the Foley Sampler window.
For this exercise, you’ll use the first option and drag a sound effect from the Sound Library.
1 Open the Sound Library. The Backpack Bookbag Rummage sound effect should still
be showing. If not, search for backpack to load that effect into the results list.
2 Drag the Backpack Bookbag Rummage sound effect from the results list to the Foley
Sampler window.
Once you add a sound effect to the Foley Sampler, it is automatically assigned to the
keyboard keys, starting at the C2 keys. If you look above the keyboard keys, you’ll see

a red bar indicating which keys the sound effect is currently assigned to. The first key
plays the sound effect at its native pitch and speed. Subsequent keys to the right of
the first key will play the effect incrementally faster and at a higher pitch.
3 Click and hold the first keyboard key (C2) on the far left of the Foley Sampler keyboard
to play the sound effect in its native pitch and speed.
4 Click additional keyboard keys toward the middle and the far right to hear the
difference in speed and pitch.
5 Right-click the C2 key to automatically play the full sample. Click the key again to
deselect it.
Now that you know how to add a sample and play it using the keyboard keys, let’s make a
few modifications to the sample and mapping.
Modifying Sample Mapping

Although the default mapping works, it’s important to be able to map the samples to the
keys of your choosing. In this case, the backpack sound effect works well at its native pitch
and speed and may also work a few keys higher for variety. However, it is unlikely that the
very high and fast versions of this sample will be useful in the Hyperlight soundtrack. To
modify the key mapping, you simply go to the Keys controls at the top of the Mapping panel.
At the top of the Foley Sampler, you’ll find four panel buttons that can be used to show
different panels of controls: Mapping, Sample, Level, and Filter. In this exercise, you’ll
work with the Mapping and Sample controls to remap the sample to the first 12 keys and
change which part of the sample is played when you press a key.
The Low, High, and Centre control knobs determine which keyboard keys are assigned
the sample.

1 In the Keys controls, drag the High knob toward the left to a value of 47. The red bar
over the keyboard keys stops after one octave (12 keys), which is just before the C3 key.
2 Change the Centre knob value to 41, which is the key in the middle of the mapped keys
between the lowest key 36 and the highest key 47.
3 Right-click the forth white keyboard key from the left (beneath the name of the sample)
to play the sample at its native pitch and speed. Feel free to click any of the other keys
within the mapped area to hear how the sample has been remapped, with subsequent
keys to the left playing lower pitch and slower, and keys to the right playing higher
pitch and faster.
Next, you’ll look at the sample and change which part of the sample is played when
you press a key.
4 At the top of the Foley Sampler, click the Sample button to show that panel.

The Sample panel controls show the sample waveform and include controls for
determining which part of the sample is played and whether it is played once or
looped. White vertical lines on the far left and right side of the waveform indicate the
Start and End points of the sample that are included when you play a key. Your goal
for this exercise is to change the Start and End points of the sample so that it includes
only the loudest section of the sample.
5 Right-click one of the keyboard keys beneath the red line to play the sample. As the
sample plays, you can see the blue playhead move across the samples waveform.
6 In the Range controls, drag the Start knob toward the right until the white vertical
line is just before the loudest part of the waveform (around 66.97). Then drag the End
knob toward the left until the second white vertical line is just after the loud part of
the waveform (around 72.62).
7 Click one of the mapped keyboard keys to play the modified sample.
As you have just demonstrated, it is easy to add and modify a sound effect sample in the
Foley Sampler.
Manually Mapping and Splitting

Additional Sounds
The Foley Sampler can accommodate additional sounds that can be mapped to different
parts of the keyboard so they can be played and recorded in sync to the picture. For
example, in the current scene with Emiliana performing maintenance on the ship, you
could map sound effects for metal things being moved, buttons pressed, her hand
grabbing things, and even her footsteps as she walks. To keep it simple, let’s just add
some footsteps. First, you’ll need to set the Foley Sampler Keys controls to Manual mode.

Otherwise, the sample mapping will override your previous mapping and automatically
split the keyboard evenly between the previous sample and the new sample.
1 At the top of the Foley Sampler, click the Mapping button to show the Mapping panel.
2 In the Keys controls, click the Manual button.
3 In the Sound Library, search for the word “catwalk”.
The Foley sound FS catwalk on metal tinny appears in the results list. This
professional Foley sound effect is literally named and includes the initials FS
for footsteps.

4 Drag the FS catwalk on metal tinny sound effect from the Sound Library to the
keyboard area of the Foley Sampler. The new sample is mapped to all the keys to the
right of the first sample in the keyboard.
5 Click a few keys mapped to the footsteps sample to hear what it sounds like.
Once again, each key incrementally plays the footsteps faster and at a higher pitch,
which isn’t really useful if you are recording footsteps to picture. What you really
need is for each footstep to be mapped so that you can play them individually. You
can do this by splitting the sample from the Options menu. When you split a sample,
the sampler will automatically map the original full length sample to the first set of
keys, followed by a spacer without sound, and then individual split sounds effects
are assigned to keys based on how many keys remain on the keyboard. That way, the
operator has the option to play the full sample or individual split parts of the sample.
6 At the top of the Foley Sampler, click the Sample button to show the sample waveform.
Here, you can clearly see each individual footstep within the sample. You can also see
that some footsteps are louder than others, especially toward the end of the sample.

7 Click the Options menu in the upper-right corner of
the Foley Sampler. This is where you’ll find additional
options to do things like Add, Rename, and Delete
samples. In the Options menu, choose Split Sample.
The individual footsteps are now mapped to keys in order from left to right. Let’s look
at the split samples to see the resulting waveforms.
8 In the keyboard, click the line above each of the FS catwalk samples from left to right to
see the respective waveform in the sample waveform area.

As expected, the quietest footsteps are mapped to the earlier keys, and the loudest
footsteps are mapped further down the keyboard, just like the original sample waveform.
Recording Foley Sampler Footsteps to Picture

With the keyboard mapped, it’s time to move on to recording the foley samples to picture.
Keep in mind that this takes some skill to master, so for the purposes of these exercises,
just do the best you can. In this final Foley Sampler exercise, you’ll start by setting a looped
playback range so that you can practice performing footsteps via the keyboard to picture.
Then you’ll record a take in the timeline. To simplify the process, blue markers were added
to the timeline to use a guide where the footfalls should occur.
1 Hide the Sound Library and mixer if necessary to streamline your interface.
2 Use the zoom controls so you can clearly see the first two clips in the A1 track as well
as the A3 track. You’ll also need to position the viewer window and Foley sampler so
that you can see the video and click the keys on the keyboard.
3 Set a range in the timeline that starts before Emiliana’s last line in the first clip and
ends before her last line in the second clip.
4 Start looped playback in the timeline and practice playing the samples using the
soundtrack footsteps as a guide. You may notice that she takes a few steps during her
first line in the second clip, “Who knows if any of them work?” that are not audible. Be
sure to include those steps too.

5 Click the Arm button [R] on the A3 track header to arm the track for recording.
6 Move to the beginning of the range.
7 When you are ready to record a take, click the Record button in the transport controls
above the timeline. Press the Spacebar to stop recording when you are finished.
NOTE If you want to try another take, you can undo the previous recording or
simply record another take on top of the first. Each take will be stored in the
track in audio track layers with the most recent take on top.
You can record additional takes later. For now, let’s move on to the last part of the
exercise. Once you have recorded a take, you can easily split the clip with the Razor
tool or shortcut and manually move or nudge the footfalls into position.
8 Close the Foley Sampler window and disarm the A3 track.

Finishing the Foley Footsteps
with a Little Sound Design
The last step for finishing the footsteps for this scene is to split the recorded footsteps
when the scene goes from a shot of Emiliana inside her cavernous workspace to Philip
watching her through the glass in the sealed door. To save time, track A5 Sound Design
has already been set up with effects to alter the sound based on Philip’s perspective
on the other side of the sealed door. All you need to do is split the clip and move the
footsteps down to the lower track.
NOTE If you would rather try the sound design for the footsteps on your own, feel
free to create a new track and move the footsteps to that track and apply whatever
EQ and time-based plug-ins you think you need to achieve your goal.
1 In the timeline, move the playhead to the first frame of the shot where Philip is
watching Emiliana through the glass in the sealed door. If you have a footfall landing
on that frame, move the playhead right or left to finish the footstep waveform before
splitting the clip.
2 Select the recorded footsteps clip in the A3 track and click the Razor tool in the
toolbar (scissors) or press Command-B. You should now have two clips in the A3 Foley
Footsteps track.
Now it’s time to cut the second footsteps clip and paste it into the A5 track.
3 Use any method that you prefer to cut the second recorded footsteps clip in the A3
track and paste it into the same position on the A5 track.

4 Play the finished scene and listen to the new footsteps and sound design as you watch
the picture.
5 Make any edits or sound design decisions you feel are necessary to finesse the
placement of the footsteps, their volume levels, and their perceived space within
the scene.
6 To see and hear a finished example of the finished scene, open the timeline 8 Foley
SFX and Foley Sampler Finished.
There you have it. You can now add Foley Sample recordings to your sound design skills.
Don’t worry if it isn’t perfect, as long as you know how to perform this operation, you can
use the Foley Sampler on your own soundtracks.
TIP You can save a Foley Sampler instrument with all the samples and mapping
to the Preset Manager so you can use it again in other timeline tacks or even
other projects on the same system. This is incredibly useful if you are working on
a project with a lot of repetitive foley sounds, such as football-tackles, helmets
crashing, and crowd cheers for a football themed movie.
Using Transients to Quickly Split Clips

Transients are the abrupt changes in a waveform that let you quickly see where sounds
begin. The Foley Sampler plug-in used transients to identify and split the different
footsteps into separate samples. DaVinci Resolve 18 includes transient detection, so it can
easily split clips into smaller segments based on transients. In this exercise, you’ll use a
combination of transients and keyboard shortcuts to dice up the clip on the A4 track into
separate footsteps.
1 Unmute the A4 track, and then solo the track.
2 Zoom as much as necessary to clearly see the clip and its waveform in the timeline.
Next, let’s change the Navigation options in the Timeline View Options menu.

3 In the Timeline View Options menu, deselect all of the Navigation options except Jump
to Clip and Jump to Transient.
With the Jump to Transient option selected, you will be able to use the Up and
Down Arrow keys for navigating to transients within the clip.
4 In the Timeline toolbar, to the left of the Vertical Zoom controls, click the
Transient Detection button to turn it on.
Once Transient Detection is active, you will see a Transient Detection icon appear
on each track header. These allow you to choose which tracks will detect and
display transients.

5 In the A4 track header, click the Transients button to display the transients within
that track.
The thin vertical lines within the clip are the detected transients. Notice that there is a
transient before each footstep sound. You can now use these transients to manually
navigate to and split the clip into individual footsteps just like the Foley Sampler.
6 Press A for the Standard Selection tool. Select the clip in the A4 track.
Selecting a clip is not necessary for navigation between transients, but it is needed to
limit which clips are split when you press the Command-B shortcut. Also, whenever
you split a clip, the remaining clip to the left of the split remains selected. So, for this
exercise, you will start at the tail of the clip and navigate toward the left as you go by
pressing the Up Arrow.
7 Move the playhead to the tail (end) of the clip.
8 Press the Up Arrow to jump to the previous transient. Press Command-B (macOS) or
Ctrl-B (Windows) to split the clip at the transient.

9 Repeat step 8 as many times as necessary to split the clip at each transient.
10 When you’re finished, click the Transient Detection button in the timeline toolbar to
turn it off.
Working with transients can be helpful in splitting clips into smaller segments. With the
sounds split into smaller clips, you can then arrange them as needed in the track. Transients
are also useful for detecting beats in music and detecting words and phrases in dialogue.
Analyzing Finished Foley Effects

The more you learn about sound design, the more techniques you will recognize in other
soundtracks. Before recording some original sound effects in the next lesson, let’s listen
to some examples of Foley footsteps in the context of finished scenes. As you play these
examples, listen to the volume level, reverb, delay, and other time-based effects.
1 Open the 8 Sample Sound Design Scenes timeline.
2 Press Shift-Z to fit the clips to the timeline, if necessary.
3 Show the viewer. Resize and move it to the lower middle of the screen.
4 Solo the A1 STEREO MIX track. Move the playhead to the second-to-last blue marker
in the track (03:04:08:14).

5 Start playback, and listen to the differences between Philip’s footsteps as he walks
down the padded corridor and when he steps into a different space with different
textile surfaces and reflective dimensions.
Could you hear the realistic change in footsteps between the two spaces?
Let’s listen to one other example.
6 Move the playhead to the third yellow timeline marker (03:03:16:05 ).
7 Start playback and listen to the techniques applied to the voices of the two characters.
You’ll hear examples of frequency cutting and reverb.
By now, your aural recognition of various sound design techniques should be more finely
tuned as you hear them in context. Did you wonder how Philip’s radio voice sound was
achieved? Easy: by applying heavy low- and high-pass filters, just like a real two-way radio.
In the next lesson, you’ll apply what you’ve learned so far to create original sound effects.
Lesson Review
1 In which pages of DaVinci Resolve 18, can you reverse and change the speed of
an audio clip?
a) Media
b) Edit
c) Fairlight
d) Fusion
e) Deliver
2 Where do you turn on the Video and Audio scrollers in the Fairlight page?
a) Timeline View Options menu
b) Inspector
c) Sound Library
d) Media pool Preview panel

3 Which options are available to apply pitch changes to a clip? (Choose all that apply.)
a) FairlightFX Pitch plug-in
b) Right-click menu
c) Pitch settings in the Inspector
d) Clip EQ in the Inspector
4 To create the aural illusion that a sound is coming from the other side of a physical
barrier, which tool would you use in mixer?
a) EQ
b) Compression
c) Auxiliary Bus
d) Object-based pan controls
5 Where do you set a sync point on a sound effect clip?

a) In the media pool
b) In the Sound Library
c) In the Inspector
d) In the SFX Sync plug-in
6 True or false? When you drag the Foley Sampler plug-in to a track’s header, the track is
automatically patched with the Foley Sampler as the Input instrument.
7 Which methods can be used to add a sound effect to the Foley Sampler? (Choose all
that apply.)
a) Drag a sound from the Sound Library to the Foley Sampler
b) Drag an audio file from the file system on your computer to the Foley Sampler
c) Right-click a clip in the timeline and choose > Add to Foley Sampler
d) Choose Add Sample in the Foley Sampler options menu
Lesson Review 407

Answers
1 b
2 a
3 a, c
4 a
5 b
6 True
7 a, b, and d

Lesson 9
Pre-Mixing Levels
and Panning Tracks
The last step of audio post involves Time

enhancing and mixing the tracks to This lesson takes approximately
prepare them for output. Assuming 50 minutes to complete.
that all other steps were completed Goals

prior to the mix, this process is fairly
straight forward.
Using Reference Tracks to Set
If you are a seasoned audio engineer Monitoring Levels 413
or re-recording mixer, you already Customizing the Interface 420
know how to transform a timeline full Evaluating and Setting Initial

of tracks into a professional‑sounding Track Levels 423
mix; you just need to learn how it’s done Finding the Right Balance
between Two Background Tracks 426
using the tools in DaVinci Resolve 18.
If you are an editor or are new to audio Linking Tracks for
Single‑Fader Control 428
post-production, the next series of
lessons are designed to demystify the Placing Audio in the
Panoramic Sound Field 432
art of mixing sound by introducing
you to the tools you’ll need and how to
use them. Lesson Review 451
Mixing is an ongoing process. Every variable you change on every track can affect how
other tracks interact. In other words, you have no set-it-and-forget-it in mixing. That’s why
you start small at the clip level by balancing levels within each track.
In this lesson, you’ll focus your attention on the track levels, how they sound together, and
the placement of sound within the panoramic field.
What Does a Re-Recording Mixer Do?

A re-recording mixer, also referred to as a dubbing mixer, is an audio engineer who
specializes in post-production audio mixing. The name indicates that this mixer is not
recording a live set, live audience, or a live performance. All the sound that they are
mixing—including recorded dialogue, sound effects, and music for a soundtrack—has
already been recorded and assembled into tracks. Although, a re-recording mixer may also
work as the sound designer on lower-budget productions.
To build the final mix, re-recording mixers pre-mix the tracks to enhance the sound and
reduce the number of tracks going to the final mix. The re-recording mixer carefully
balances those tracks to create a final mix based on the sound designer’s or director’s
audio goals. Along the way, the mixer records the output of the mix, or groups of tracks,
back into the timeline into a new track. Hence the name re-recording mixer, because they
continually re-record mixed sections of the timeline or the entire mix back into the timeline
to create finished stems or mixes. The mix must also comply with any regulations that
enforce sound mixing standards for broadcast and theatrical distribution.
Although you can mix projects in a home office or recording studio, full-sized mixing or
dubbing stages are preferred when mixing feature films destined for theatrical release.
They enable the mixer to fully hear how the final mix will be experienced by audiences.
in previous lessons. If you skipped ahead to this lesson, you may need to review the
previous lessons as a guide for skills and tools already covered.

In this exercise, you’ll continue working with the scene that you’ve been editing and
building since Lesson 2. For this lesson, you’ll be looking at the meters often, so let’s set up
the interface accordingly.
410 Lesson 9 Pre-Mixing Levels and Panning Tracks

1 Open the 9 Mix Scene Start timeline.
2 If necessary, hide the media pool, index, and any other open panel on the Fairlight
page. Hide the viewer so that it returns to the docked position in the monitoring panel.
3 Show the monitoring panel (meters) and mixer.
4 Press Shift-Z to fit the clips horizontally in the visible timeline area.
This version of the scene represents the culmination of your work throughout this
book. In some cases, multitrack effects were bounced in their respective timelines and
added to this timeline. Also, some of the track colors were changed to organize the
tracks for mixing. Before you dive into mixing, here’s a breakdown of the tracks you’ll
be working with in this lesson:
— A1–A4 are the dialogue tracks that you recorded, edited, balanced, and repaired in
Lessons 2 through 7.

— A3 ADA VO wFX contains a bounced version of ADA’s voiceover that you worked on in
Lesson 8. Flanger and de-esser plug-ins were already added to this track to further
enhance the sound.
— A5 PFX contains all the useful production sound effects (non-dialogue) that were
recorded with the dialogue. It was split from the dialogue clips and moved to a
separate track so it can be included with the other sound effects tracks in the mix.
— A6–A7 are the stitched and bounced versions of the heart monitor and respirator
effects. They have been pitched up by +3 semitones in the Inspector.
— A8 is the DRONE 1 filler track that has been part of this scene since the initial edit.
During this lesson, as the sound designer and re-recording mixer, you will determine
whether you want to include it in the final mix.
NOTE You can see the finished timelines for the medlab fx and other original
sound effects in the Original Sound FX Timelines bin.
— A9 SFX contains the final mixed stereo sound effect stem that incorporates over 20
tracks of effects. Normally, the re-recording mixer would have access to the individual
tracks, as well as a sub-mix and bounced stems of the sound effects.
— A10 MUSIC contains the final mixed stereo music stem with the original score.

— A11 SPACER is an empty 7.1 track used as a spacer to separate your primary mixing
tracks from the reference tracks. Feel free to drag the bottom of the Spacer track
header to change its height as needed.
— A12–A14 reference tracks contain sections of the Hyperlight final mix and stems that
can be used to set listening levels and compare mixing levels while you work. These
tracks are muted.
NOTE If you’re working in a quiet room with a good set of stereo audio monitors,
you should be good to go. If you have been using your built-in computer speakers
or an inexpensive single speaker up to now, you are well advised to use stereo
headphones when performing these mixing exercises. Mixing with headphones is
not ideal in most scenarios, but for learning purposes they will suffice.
Using Reference Tracks to

Set Monitoring Levels
In previous lessons, you learned some of the guidelines for balancing dialogue and sound
effects. Those are important considerations, but stepping away from the clips and tracks
for a moment, everything comes down to volume. Your personal preferences for volume
levels may be completely different from your family and friends. That’s why when you
seize the television remote control, you usually change the volume as well as the channel.
Regardless of your personal preferences, audio levels should be consistent from scene to
scene and from one show to the next.
How do you do this? Meters are only part of the story. You still mix with your ears as well
as the meters. So, before mixing a single track, you should set your computer output
monitoring levels. Granted, you may be at home or in a classroom while stepping through
this training guide, so you may not have the equipment to calibrate your listening
environment—or even the speakers to listen to the output. And if you already have
professional calibration gear and an awesome surround speaker setup at your mixing
station, chances are your room is already calibrated.

NOTE The engineering details for calibrating your room go far beyond the scope
of this book. Furthermore, the standards vary from region to region and are
subjective to your equipment, room size, project type and delivery requirements.
If you are considering a career in audio post-production, by all means become an
expert in the hardware, standards, and calibration. You can find reference details
and sample wave test files online through professional organizations like the EBU,
SMPTE, or ATSC, as well as some audio post facilities.
Regardless of your setup, for the purposes of this lesson, how loud should your monitoring
output be? Basically, if your room, your computer output level, and your speakers are
properly set up, then the levels should be comfortable to your ears while you mix. Loud
sounds will sound loud, quiet sounds will sound quiet, and if something isn’t working,
you’ll hear it.
One of the best ways to set your listening levels is to use a reference track that contains
professionally mixed content similar to your current project or scene.
Finding Useful Reference Tracks

In the real world, you’d need a time machine to reference a finished mix of your current
project. Such is the power of training guides like this one. However, it is common for
sound-mixers-in-training to use finished mixes as a guide to check levels and practice re-
mixing a scene.
What should you use as a reference track? Something that is as close as you can get to
the project or scene you are mixing. Of course, no two projects or scenes are the same,
so when looking for reference tracks for comparison, here are some basic guidelines
to follow:
— Compare apples to apples whenever possible. In other words, find a project that has
the same delivery format. For example, if you are mixing a podcast, use a downloaded
podcast as a reference. If you are mixing a film (even a short film) for theatrical release,
use the highest-quality theatrical mix you can of the same genre. Blu-ray and 4K
DVDs often use the theatrical mix or something close to it. You can patch a player to
your system so you can hear the soundtrack, see the meters, and set your listening
levels accordingly.

— If you are working on an episodic show, scripted or unscripted, use mixed elements
from previous episodes as a guide.
— Choose reference scenes or sections that reflect the overall feel and sound experience
(soundscape) that you’re trying to convey in your mix. For example, if you are mixing an
intense dialogue scene that involves a heated exchange ranging from hushed whispers
to loud shouting, use a scene with the same dynamic dialogue range as a reference.
— Choose a reference soundtrack that is a good example of successfully balancing and
mixing the subtle elements in the scene as well as the big moments. Pay attention to
the background, ambience, and Foley sound effect levels, as well as the placement of
the music and non-diegetic sound in the mix.
For this exercise, you’ll use the finished Hyperlight mix as a reference to set your listening
levels. These can also be used later while mixing to check your balancing and sweetening
skills against the finished stems.
1 Adjust the vertical zoom on your timeline until you can clearly read the track numbers
and names. Then scroll down to see the A12–A14 tracks.
2 Unmute and solo the A12 MIX Reference track.
Because you will focus on the meters for a few steps prior to adjusting the levels, let’s
use the DIM button to lower the playback volume by 15 decibels.
3 Mark a play range between 01:00:53:18 and 01:01:18:04. This section is a strong
representation of dialogue plus music and background sound effects.
Keep in mind that this reference audio does not match the picture, so ignore the
viewer and focus your attention on the meters.

4 Start looped playback of the A12 MIX Reference track. Look at all the meters in the A12
track header, mixer, and monitoring panel.
Track header Mixer

Monitoring panel
Monitoring panel
Seasoned audio engineers should feel right at home among these meters and
controls. If you’re new to audio post, you may find this setup as intimidating as a space
shuttle cockpit. If so, relax. In the next few exercises, you’ll discover just how useful
and user-friendly the meters and mixing controls can be.
Keep in mind that all these meters are telling the same story but simply use different
scales to do so. First, do you remember your target levels for dialogue? It’s between
-15 and -10 dB with the average at -12 dB. Also, if you recall, these target dialogue
levels appear yellow in the track meters, mixer, and monitoring panel track meters.
The dialogue in the reference track fits the target levels perfectly. Additionally, at
powerful moments, music and sound effects swell to the same levels when dialogue
is not present.

In the meters to the right of the monitoring panel, you’ll see that each meter tells the
same story: the reference track levels peak at the nominal levels between -10 and
-15 dB in the mixer and correspond with the Control Room (mustard colored) meter
and fluctuate around -23 LUFS in the blue Loudness meters. You’ll work more with
the Control Room and Loudness meters in a later lesson.
NOTE American loudness standards are actually -24 LUFS, which you can
change in the project settings. Also, keep in mind that this is a stereo signal,
just like the Main 1 output.
Now that you are confident in the reference levels, you can adjust your
monitoring levels.
5 In the master playback monitoring controls, click the DIM button to turn it off, and
drag the fader to the far right position, 0 dB. If you are monitoring through an external
audio I/O device, adjust the monitoring levels accordingly. Continue looped playback.
6 While listening to the reference track, adjust the output level of your computer or
speakers so that the levels are comfortable and clear for you. You can do so whether
you are using headphones or external speakers. If necessary, you can also adjust the
playback monitoring level.
Let’s check your setting with the actual dialogue tracks.
7 Clear the play range. Unsolo and mute the A12 Reference track.

8 Solo tracks A1-A4. Move the playhead to around 01:00:22:00, before Philip’s first line of
dialogue, “ADA, identify the person in front of me.”
9 Start playback and listen to the dialogue levels while looking at the meters in both the
mixer and monitoring panel.
The levels should still average around -15 dB to with some louder peaks or quieter
dialogue depending on the scene context. How did the levels sound to you? If they
sounded too low, you may have set your computer output level a bit too low based
on the reference track. Conversely, if the dialogue was too loud, you probably set the
levels too high. Setting the best levels comes with practice. The important goal is to
set a comfortable level for you.
10 Unsolo the dialogue tracks.
11 If you need to adjust your listening levels, unmute and solo the A12 track and adjust
the levels now. When finished, mute and unsolo the A12 MIX Reference track.

12 Show the Tracks index and hide the visibility (eye icon) for tracks A11–A15. Make sure
that all four Reference tracks are muted. Then close the index.
Once you have set up your monitoring levels for mixing, you must abide by the number
one rule: Don’t touch the levels again until you are finished with the mix. Really! Moving
forward, when the tracks sound too loud or too quiet, they truly are. Fix them in the
timeline or the mixer, but don’t touch the computer volume controls. Trust your ears as
well as the meters.
Customizing the Interface

Now that the monitoring levels are set, let’s resize the viewer in the monitoring panel.
Because this timeline has only 15 tracks, you definitely don’t need to see all the empty
track meters at the top of the screen. Also, at any time, you can increase the height
of the monitoring panel, while decreasing the height of the mixer. In this exercise,
you’ll customize your interface for mixing. Then, you can make changes as you go to
accommodate the mixing tasks at hand.

To resize the viewer or the monitoring panel, you can simply drag the viewer’s boundaries.
1 In the monitoring panel at the top of the screen, move the pointer over the left edge of
the viewer until it becomes a resize pointer.
2 Drag the left edge of the viewer to the left until the Loudness meters are to the left of
the transport controls in the interface toolbar.
This customized layout has several advantages. First, the gray space around the viewer
makes it easier to glance at, like a stand-alone window. Second, the Loudness meters
are much closer to the track meters in the monitoring panel, which makes it easier to
see them all at once.
Next, you’ll resize the monitoring panel in both directions to see how easy it is to
quickly adjust the height of the monitoring panel or mixer.
Customizing the Interface 421

3 Drag the lower edge of the viewer down to increase the height of the viewer and
monitoring panel. Stop dragging when the monitoring panel fills the upper third of
the screen.
This layout is great when you need a larger viewer, Loudness meters, and overall
track meters.
4 Drag the bottom edge of the viewer up as far as you can to minimize the height of the
viewer and monitoring panel.
The trick to resizing your interface is to maximize the size of the elements you need as
you need them.

Evaluating and Setting
Initial Track Levels
The four fundamental elements of mixing are volume level, pan, dynamics, and equalization.
However, each of these elements affects the overall sound at all times. In many ways,
mixing a soundtrack is like cooking a single-pot dish. Many parts influence the final
dish, so you continually mix, add more ingredients (tracks), taste (listen), and add spices
(effects and EQ) until it’s ready to serve.
The most apparent mixing element is the volume, so let’s start with it.
In the mixer, you can see that all the faders are at their default positions except for the A8
DRONE 1 track. This is the starting position for mixing. Assuming that all the clip levels are
balanced within each track, you can use the mixing faders to adjust the levels within the
mix. Keep in mind that the faders are only in their starting positions; their final positions
will change constantly until the final mix is rendered in the deliver page.
Let’s play the first half of the scene and listen to the current levels of the tracks. At that
time, if any track levels are obviously out of place, you can balance them in the track header
or in the mixer.
You have only one way to find out if the starting levels are balanced. First, as a re-recording
mixer, you’ll want all the faders in their default positions before you listen to the tracks. If a
change in level is necessary, you’ll want to be the one to do it.
1 In the mixer, double-click the A8 DRONE 1 fader to set it to its default position.

2 Play the beginning of the scene and listen to the cumulative levels. During playback,
listen for any tracks that seem too loud or distract from the dialogue. Also, listen for
tracks that may need level changes over time.
3 When Emiliana says, “ADA, identify the person I’m speaking with.” stop playback.
What did you think? You may have identified a few places that you must deal with
before moving forward. Two of those are the medlab effects on the A6 and A7 tracks.
While the heart monitor and respirator effects sound good, especially in the beginning
of the scene before the dialogue, they are way too “hot” (loud), especially when the
medlab is offscreen and the characters are talking.
Also, the A8 DRONE 1 track is stepping over the music track and seems to be
consistently too loud. No problem, these are all easy fixes.
NOTE Before working your way through this book, your first instinct may have
been to turn up the levels of the dialogue tracks to compensate for the other
louder music and sound effects tracks. If you found yourself reaching for the
faders with an urge to turn down the medlab effects while listening to the
scene, you have the reflexive aural instincts of a re-recording mixer!
Let’s mute the medlab effects and set the level for the A8 track during playback.
After the A8 track level is set, you can tackle the medlab effects.

When mixing, the levels of background sound effects tracks are adjusted during
playback in the context of other priority tracks. Because you are working on a digital
audio workstation (DAW), you can also stop and adjust individual clips as necessary.
4 Mute the A6 and A7 tracks.
5 Select the A8 DRONE 1 track header to also select and brighten the corresponding
channel strip in the mixer.
NOTE Keep in mind that faders are the controls in the mixer that control
volume levels, whereas fade handles are the white handles (dots) on the volume
overlay at the head and tail of each clip in the timeline.
In the timeline at the first clip in the A8 track, you can see that the clip starts with a
fade. So, wait until the playhead is beyond that fade-in before you adjust the track
fader. Meanwhile, this is a great opportunity to listen to the drone track soloed during
the fade-in to familiarize yourself with its sound.
6 Solo the A8 DRONE 1 track.
7 Start playback from the beginning and listen to the A8 track soloed during the fade-
in. Continue playback. In the mixer, unsolo the A8 track and drag down the A8 track
fader to lower its overall level in the mix. Your goal is to lower the drone level until it is
a subtle bed (a continuous sound) in the background. If you aren’t sure which level to
use, try a setting between -25 and -30 (around -15 dB in the track volume level field).
As you can see, it takes only a few seconds to set the faders and evaluate the tracks.
Next, you’ll balance the medlab effects tracks.

Finding the Right Balance
between Two Background Tracks
The heart monitor and respirator sound effects are on separate tracks but represent one
complex medlab machine. Your goal is to balance the two tracks to make them sound as
if they are coming from one machine. You do not yet need to worry about their levels
compared to the other tracks. First, just make them sound great together. Once you find
the right balance, you can use faders to lower their relative levels to fit into the overall mix.
The best way to balance levels between two tracks is to do so during playback with the two
tracks soloed.
1 Unsolo the A8 track. Unmute and solo the A6 and A7 tracks.
2 Select the A6 track and then Command-click (macOS) or Ctrl-click (Windows) the A7
track to select them both.
3 Zoom in vertically on the selected tracks until you can clearly see the waveforms and
volume overlays on the medlab clips. Then, deselect the tracks.
By zooming in on them, the tracks will be easier to work with while you change the
individual clip levels. When balancing multiple sound effects clips into one effect,
you should first determine which is the dominant clip, if any. As the sound designer,
this choice is entirely up to you. In this example, you’ll lower the respirator sound
because it is more likely to detract from the dialogue. The heart monitor, on the other
hand, can sell the idea of a medlab by itself.
So, let’s leave the heart monitor clip’s volume at the default level and lower the
respirator clip to about half the level of the heart monitor. To do so, you can drag down

the clip’s volume overlay while listening and watching the meters in the track headers,
mixer, or monitoring panel.
4 In the monitoring panel, drag down on the bottom of the viewer to increase the size of
the viewer and monitoring panel, as needed.
5 Start playback from the beginning and watch the video playback in the viewer and the
meters for the soloed tracks.
Both tracks average around -15 dB. So, to reduce the respirator level by half, you’ll
lower the level until it averages around -30 dB.
6 Continue playback. Drag the Respirator FX Long.wav clip’s volume overlay down
while listening and watching the meters until the average level of the clip in the A7
track is about half of the A6 track’s level.
Finding the Right Balance between Two Background Tracks 427

To make sure the heart monitor and corresponding respirator levels are working with
each other, let’s check them against the beginning of the scene where you see Philip in
the medlab.
7 Start playback from the beginning and listen to the combined medlab effects while
watching the viewer. If the sound works with the picture and sells the idea of a real
machine, your levels are good. If not, this is the time to fix them. Raise or lower the
level of the respirator clip until you like the way it works with the heart monitor. When
you’re finished, stop playback.
Remember, sound mixing has a few delivery rules, but ultimately everything comes
down to sound. Somebody must make the choices and decide whether those choices
work. For this lesson, it’s all you. If it you think it works, move on.
Linking Tracks for

Single‑Fader Control
Now that the two different medlab clips sound great together, you need to adjust their
levels relative to the mix. Trouble is, they are on different tracks. Because they are
essentially one effect on two tracks, you can link them together to control them with a
single channel strip in the mixer. Linking tracks as a group has one prerequisite: the tracks
must be single-channel (mono) tracks.
The waveforms in these clips show that the left/right channels in each track are identical.
In this exercise, you’ll change the A6 and A7 tracks to mono and link them as a group for
mixing. First, take a look at the Main 1 output levels for the two stereo tracks and compare
that to the levels after they become mono tracks.
1 From the beginning, play a few seconds of the stereo medlab tracks, and in the Main 1
output meters, look at the output level of the cumulative tracks. Watch for the loudest
levels in the yellow and in the peak indicators.
2 Select both the A6 and A7 tracks. Right-click the A6 track header and choose Change
Track Type To > Mono to change both selected tracks at once.

3 Play the beginning of the timeline to hear the mono tracks played together. During
playback, notice that the relative difference remains the same, yet the cumulative
output level is lower.
Why are the levels lower? To emulate the way human ears interpret sound in the
real world, pan laws are applied to levels to compensate for the differences between
mono signals panned to the center and stereo signals panned left and right. In
short, a single-channel sound panned to the center is perceived to be lower in
volume (approximately -3 dB) compared to the same signal playing equally from two
stereo channels. Professional digital audio workstations, such as the Fairlight page,
automatically apply the pan law standards to mono tracks.
NOTE You’ll work more with track pan controls in the next section. This was
just an opportunity to point out the level changes between the converted
stereo to mono tracks.
Meanwhile, to link the two mono channels, you’ll use the Link Group window.

4 Choose Fairlight > Link Group.
The Link Group window opens, displaying all the tracks in the timeline. If you look
closely, you’ll see that all the mono tracks are brighter to indicate that they are
available for linking.
This window is primarily used to link stereo or surround sound channels that were
imported into Resolve as separate mono channels. However, in this case, you’ll link
the A6 and A7 tracks to create a stereo track. Linking is non-destructive and doesn’t
alter the original files. Furthermore, you can unlink linked tracks at any time in the
same window.
5 In the Link Group window, click the MEDLAB 1 and MEDLAB 2 buttons to select those
tracks for linking.
6 Click the Link button.
In the Link Group window, the two linked tracks have a dark background and a bar
connecting them to indicate that they have been linked.

7 Close the window and look at A6 and A7 track headers.
You can instantly recognize the linked tracks by the white vertical bar to the far left of
the track headers and the channel indicators that show that they are mapped as L (left)
and R (right).
8 Resize the tracks vertically until they all fit in the timeline.
9 Drag the left edge of the mixer to the left to extend it to see all the channel strips.

The channel strips no longer include A7 because linked tracks are controlled by the
channel strip for the first linked track, which in this case is A6 MEDLAB 1. The linked
clips are also marked as such in the monitoring panel.
Now that you’ve linked the tracks, they should sound just as they did before, right? Never
assume anything in audio mixing. In fact, you should get in the habit of auditioning
changes in the context of the entire mix as you make those changes. Colorists have the
advantage of instantly seeing every miniscule change they make. However, in audio
mixing, you start playback and then rely on experience, your ears, and the meters.
10 Start playback from the beginning and listen to the linked medlab tracks.
11 In the mixer, lower the level of the A6 fader to peak at around -25 dB and
stop playback.
As promised, you can now control the linked tracks using a single channel strip in the
mixer. However, you may have noticed a pronounced difference in the medlab sound
effects during playback. Let’s hear it in context with the other tracks.
12 In the mixer, click the Solo button on the A6 channel strip to unsolo the linked tracks.
13 Play the beginning of the timeline and listen to the medlab effect along with the other
tracks. Stop playback before Philip’s first line of dialogue.
Wait! What happened to the medlab effects? They used to sound like one machine in the
middle of the room, and now they sound like two machines on opposite sides of the room.
No worries, you just experienced the power of track panning, which you will explore in the
next exercise.
NOTE Another method for controlling similar tracks with a single fader is to use a
bus, as you will learn in a later lesson.
Placing Audio in the

Panoramic Sound Field
Pan controls place a track’s audio within a panoramic sound field. They enable you to
compose the spatial arrangement of audio elements just as a cinematographer composes
the visuals of a shot. You can precisely locate mono tracks to sound as if they come from
an offscreen source, or virtually anywhere within the frame. DaVinci Resolve includes
advanced pan controls in both the edit and Fairlight pages that support 2D (stereo) audio,
multichannel surround, and 3D (object-based) audio placement.

In this set of exercises, you’ll use the pan controls to narrow the panoramic spread of the
medlab effects. Then, you’ll experiment with various panning options to widen the sound
of ADA’s omnipresent computer voice. Finally, you’ll adjust the panning for the multi-
layered computer ship display effect. Let’s start by using the A14 SFX Reference track’s
panning controls to compare stereo and mono tracks.
1 In the index track list, click the visibility icon for the A14 track. Then hide the index.
2 Mark a range between 01:01:04:19 and 01:01:05:06. This is a short sound-effects

section that will work for this example.
3 Unmute and then solo the A14 track and start looped playback. If the level of the
reference sound effects track bothers you, feel free to click the DIM button for this
panning exercise.
In the panning controls, the green dots represent the spread and positions of the
speakers for each audio channel. The blue square is a handle that you can use
to move the sound to a specific position in mono tracks or between speakers in
multichannel tracks.
Notice that the A14 track is in the default position with the left and right channels in
the front (upper) left and right positions, and the blue handle is equidistant between
them. During playback, the A14 meter and M1 output meters also indicate an equal
amount of sound coming from the left and right channels.

In addition to the standard vertical meters, DaVinci Resolve includes a new Surround
Analyzer. This graphical meter shows a spatial image of the audio being measured,
so it indicates the direction in which the sound radiates, which is a more visual
representation of the signal and its relationship to all the surround channels. Before
continuing our panning experimentation, let’s add the Surround Analyzer meter to the
Main (M1) channel strip in the mixer.
4 Stop playback. At the top of the Main 1 (Bus1) channel strip, in the Add Effect pop-up
menu, click the Add Effect button (the + symbol) and choose Metering > Fairlight FX >
Surround Analyzer.

5 Move the Surround Analyzer meter to the lower part of the mixer next to the A14 and
Main meters.
7 Using the mixer’s pan controls, drag the blue handle for the 14 SFX Reference to the
upper-left corner of the panning control in the control strip. Then, drag the 14 SFX
Reference blue panning handle to the upper-right corner of the control to pan the
sound fully to the right speaker.
Stereo track panned to Stereo track panned fully Stereo track panned fully
the center (default) to the left speaker to the right speaker

In each example, you can hear the sound more prominently in either the left or right
speaker or the headphone earpiece. While the track’s meter stays the same regardless
of the panning position, the M1 output meter shows twice as much sound coming
from the left or right channel based on the panned position. Also, the highly-visual
Surround Analyzer shows a blob-like graph depicting the sound field as it moves from
the center (spread between the left and right with the primary sound in the “phantom”
center) to the far left or right, respectively. This meter is often referred to as a jellyfish
meter due to fluid shape of the graph.
Just like the standard bar meters in the Main 1 channel strip, in all cases the graph
shows that the sound is emitting from both the left and right speakers.
8 Continue looped playback. Drag the blue panning handle to different positions while
listening to the output and looking at the meters.
No matter where the panning handle is placed, with these stereo pan settings, sound
will always come from both the left and right speakers.
Now let’s explore the same panning controls on a mono track.
9 Right-click the A14 SFX Reference track header and choose Change Track
Type To > Mono.
The A14 track’s panning controls show only the blue handle with no specified speaker
channels. Notice that the signal is focused in the center between the left and right
channels in the Surround Analyzer.
10 Drag the A14 SFX Reference blue panning handle to the upper-left corner, and then to
the upper-right corner, to hear the sound travel from one extreme to the other. Repeat
this pan while watching the M1 output meters and Surround Analyzer to see the stereo
output reflect the position of the single-channel panning handle.
Mono track panned to Mono track panned fully Mono track panned fully
the center channel to the left channel to the right channel

When panning the mono track, you can move the single channel of sound fully to one
speaker or the other or anywhere in between.
11 Stop playback. Clear the range. Then mute and unsolo the A14 SFX Reference track.
Clearly, the pan controls in the mixer are a quick and easy way to pan your stereo and
mono tracks. But what if you want a stereo track to sound more like a mono track?
Controlling a Track’s Stereo Spread

In addition to panning sound between the left and right speakers, you can also narrow
the perceived placement of the speakers and the size of the source. In this exercise, you’ll
narrow the distance between the two medlab sounds to regain the original illusion of a
single machine. Let’s solo the A6 MEDLAB 1 track and take a closer look its pan controls in
the Audio Pan window.
1 In the mixer, solo the A6 MEDLAB 1 track. Then, double-click the track’s Pan controls to
open the Audio Pan window.
NOTE In DaVinci Resolve 18, double-clicking the Dynamics, Pan, or EQ

controls in the mixer will open the full-sized controls window. Single-clicking
the Dynamics, Pan, or EQ controls in the mixer will turn off (bypass) that built-
in processing for the associated track. Single-click the control again to turn
it back on.

These Audio Pan controls work with standard channel-based tracks ranging from
mono and stereo to traditional 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound configurations, depending
on your setup and project. The center of the graph represents the audience’s
perspective from which an audience can hear sounds placed in the surround sound
positions around them. The top center position, which is the default position for the
blue panning handle, is the center channel in surround formats and the phantom
center in stereo tracks because there isn’t a center speaker, only the illusion of a center
speaker in a stereo mix. The small letters F, R, B, and L—positioned clockwise around
the space in the top, right, bottom, and left positions—represent the Front, Right,
Back, and Left positions in the panoramic field, respectively.
Where you place audio tracks within this panoramic space will reflect where the
audience will locate each audio source. The Spread control is for linked sources.
Divergence determines the distribution of the audio signal to additional speakers in a
stereo or surround mix, and Boom determines how much of a track’s sound is sent to
the low-frequency effect (LFE) speaker.
The A6 MEDLAB 1 track is currently panned to the front with the left channel going
to the far-left front speaker position, and the right channel going to the far-right
front speaker position. No wonder it sounds as if the respirator and heart monitor
are on opposite sides of the room; that’s exactly how the linked track is panned. Let’s
start playback and narrow the stereo spread to bring the sound of the left and right
channels closer together.
2 Turn off the DIM button, if necessary. Move the Surround Analyzer to the left of the
MEDLAB 1 channel strip.
3 In the mixer, double-click the A6 fader to reset it to the default position.
4 Start playback from the beginning of the timeline and listen to the current placement
of the heart monitor to the left and the respirator to the right.
NOTE If you hear the heart monitor to the right and the respirator to the left,
your headphones are on backward or your speakers are transposed.

5 Drag the Spread control counterclockwise from the FULL position to the PNT (point)
position. As you change the control, notice that the green dots representing the left
and right channels move toward each other until they become a single point.

The sounds of the two effects now seem to be coming from the same position, just as
they did when they were independent mono tracks. In fact, you can now position the
sound using the blue pan handle, just as you could with a mono track.
6 Continue playback and drag the blue pan handle anywhere within the panoramic
field to hear the medlab effects move between speakers. Then, drag the handle to
the center position on the panoramic graph. Use the Left/Right and Front/Back fields
as a guide to see when the position is centered exactly ( C ).
NOTE You may or may not hear the sound change from front to back when
you are listening through stereo speakers or headphones. Also, if you are
monitoring audio through an audio interface and mixer that outputs only left
and right channels, then you may not hear any output that is not panned to
the front left or front right. To monitor the surround channels, you also need a
surround output bus. You’ll work more with busses in subsequent lessons.

Next, let’s use the Divergence control to increase the perceived size of the
audio source.
7 Start playback from the beginning. Drag the Divergence control clockwise to
around 20.
The green line indicates the perceived size of the source sound.
8 In the Divergence controls, click the 2D button to show a circle representing the
perceived size of the source audio.

9 Increase the Spread to 6 to slightly separate the two sound effects.
The Divergence and Spread adjustments scale the cumulative medlab sound effects to
sound as though they are coming from the large medical device shown onscreen. Now,
let’s try setting the volume level in the context of the other tracks. For this exercise,
focus on the sound of the medlab effects before Philip’s first line of dialogue.

10 Close the Audio Pan window and unsolo the A6 channel strip.
11 Play the timeline from the beginning and adjust the A6 fader so the volume fits into
the scene as a realistic background sound. If you aren’t sure of the level, try setting a
level between -25 and -30 in the mixer. When you are finished, stop playback and close
the Surround Analyzer.
Wow! Goosebumps. Suddenly, the medlab looks and feels (and sounds) real. The medlab
effects have come a long way since the beginning of this lesson. Finally, they are working in
harmony with the other tracks and really “sell” the whole medlab location. And as you just
witnessed, finding the right levels and track panning can make a huge difference in the
impact of each track.
Exploring 3D Pan Controls

In addition to conventional stereo and 5.1- and 7.1-channel surround panning, DaVinci
Resolve 18 includes 3D audio pan controls for object-based spatial audio positioning.
These enable you to pan mono tracks to specific positions in 3D space for a more
immersive audience experience.
Let’s open the 3D pan controls for the A14 SFX Reference track to see and hear the
3D controls.

1 In the mixer, Option-double-click (macOS) or Alt-double-click (Windows) the pan
control for the A14 track to open the 3D pan controls. Click the Reset button in the top
right of the window, if necessary.
Just like the standard surround panning controls, these controls include a panner
viewer that displays a large 3D representation of the listener’s perceived sound
stage with a blue sphere representing the track audio being positioned within that
sound stage.
To the right of the panner viewer are the 2D Front, Side, and Top panner controls for
placing sound on specific axes.
— Front panner controls the horizontal left/right and the vertical up/down axis.
— Side panner controls the front/back and up/down axis.
— Top panner controls the left/right and front/back axis.
Let’s solo the A14 SFX Reference track to hear it in the 3D panoramic space.

2 Unmute and solo the A14 track to hear the SFX reference mix as a mono channel
object. Do not start playback. Feel free to click the DIM button, if desired.
At the moment, the SFX reference sound is still in the front center position. To change
the position of that sound in 3D space, drag the corresponding blue pan handle in the
Front, Side, or Top panner controls. With DaVinci Resolve 18, you can also drag the blue
handle in the graph. There are also green crosshairs that illustrate sound placement
within the room.
3 In the Top panner, drag the blue pan handle down to move the track’s audio toward
the back and to the left of the 3D space. Watch the blue sphere in the 3D graph as it
moves in the same pattern along the same path.

4 In the Front panner, drag the panner so that the sphere moves to the upper right and
back of the sound stage. Keep in mind that the back of the stage is closer to you; the
front of the stage is in the distance.
5 Experiment with the different panners to move the sound sphere within the sound
stage. When you’re finished, reset the pan controls and close the window.
6 Unsolo, mute, and hide the A14 track.
As you can see, the Fairlight 3D panning controls make it easy to place sounds in 3D space.
So, when your projects require object-based 3D panning, you know where to perform it.
For now, let’s return to the current mixing project and use a plug-in to control a track’s
stereo spread. You will work more with the 3D panner and immersive formats in Lesson 14.
NOTE DaVinci Resolve also includes a Space View scope that can be used to help
visualize your 3D immersive track. You can find the Space View scope in the Fairlight
menu under the Immersive submenu.
Dialogue Is “King,” Even When Panning Dialogue Tracks

Sound effects and music tracks can be panned anywhere in the panoramic field except the
front center. That position is reserved for the most important tracks: dialogue.

The rules for panning dialogue are different than panning sound effects and music.
Remember, dialogue is “king” in audio post-production. And the dialogue tracks get royal
treatment to ensure that they are always heard front-and-center with all other tracks
surrounding them. This translates to always panning the dialogue to the front center.
That’s also why most dialogue tracks are mono. Whether you are mixing in stereo or
surround sound, you have plenty of panoramic space beyond the center to place the
other tracks.
Controlling Stereo Spread Using

the Stereo Width Plug‑In
In the previous section, you used the audio pan controls to change the position and
panning of a linked stereo sound effect. In this exercise, you’ll listen to Emiliana and Philip’s
mono dialogue tracks that are dutifully panned to the front center position, and then apply
a Stereo Width plug-in to ADA’s track to create a more omnipresent sound quality. That’s
right; there’s room for some dialogue panning creativity, as long as the final mix pans the
dialogue stem or dialogue submix bus to the center channel.
1 Solo the dialogue tracks A1 through A4. Play the dialogue exchange starting with
Philip’s first line and ending with ADA’s line, “I cannot explain this discrepancy”
(01:00:22:00 - 01:00:47:20). Listen to the panoramic placement of the tracks.
Could you hear the difference in panning between the human voices and ADA’s voice?
Emiliana and Philip’s voices seem to come directly from the middle of the screen (Front
Center), whereas ADA’s voice has a much wider sonic spread.
In the mixer, the A1 and A2 tracks are mono and panned to the front center position.
The A3 track is stereo with a full left-to-right spread.
NOTE Although ADA’s voice was recorded in mono, the doubled voice effect
was finished by bouncing the tracks to a single rendered stereo clip.

Instead of using the panning controls to change ADA’s stereo spread, let’s use the
Stereo Width plug-in. Because this is a mixing lesson, instead of dragging the effect
from the Effects Library, let’s use the effects slots in the A3 channel strip.
2 At the top of the A3 channel strip, in the Add Effect pop-up menu, click the Add Effect
button, and choose Spatial > Fairlight FX > Stereo Width.
The Stereo Width plug-in is added to the A3 Effects slots along with the Flanger and
De-Esser plug-ins. The Stereo Width plug-in window opens.
You can apply the Stereo Width plug-in to any stereo track and quickly adjust the
stereo spread from mono to stereo, to super wide, or anywhere in between. Diffusion
adds complexity to the output signal, and Sparkle increases the high-frequency gain.
3 Mark the first clip in the A3 track. If necessary, turn on the looped playback.

4 Start looped playback and drag the Width control counterclockwise to the far left
(mono) position. Then, drag the Width control clockwise to the far right (wide) position.
Mono width
Super wide width
You can clearly hear the difference between the mono and super wide settings. The
super wide setting sounds interesting, but it is spread so far that it may become a little
distracting in the dialogue scene. Let’s narrow the width so that ADA sounds as if she is
coming from multiple built-in speakers without a specific point of origin.

5 While watching the viewer and listening to ADA’s voice, slowly drag the Width control
counterclockwise toward the mono position. If you aren’t sure what level to set, try a
Width of around 0.50.
6 Stop playback. Unsolo the dialogue tracks and play that section to hear the dialogue
panning along with the other tracks.
7 Close the Stereo Width window.
ADA’s stereo panning works great to distinguish her disembodied voice from the two
human characters in the room.
NOTE A panoramic photograph is an image that includes everything you can

see without turning your head. A panoramic stereo field is everything you can
hear from the far left to the far right without turning your head. By default, all
stereo tracks start with the pan position set to left/right (0), or center. Stereo
tracks panned to center are played at equal levels out of both speakers, which
leaves the sonic impression that the sound is directly in front of the listener in
the middle of the L/R audio space. Be aware that this audible “phantom center”
is not the same as panning a mono track to the center channel speaker in a
multi-speaker configuration.

Lesson Review
1 True or false? You should balance the volume levels of individual clips in the timeline
before adjusting track levels in the mixer.
2 Where do you set and balance overall track levels?

a) Mixer
b) Track Level window
c) Monitoring panel
d) Control room
e) Loudness controls
3 True or false? It is possible to use the controls in the Audio Pan window to make a
stereo track sound like a mono track.
4 In the Fairlight page, how can you link two mono tracks as a single stereo track that
uses a single fader control?
a) Channel mapping controls
b) Right-click the track headers and choose Link Tracks.
c) Link the tracks in the Link Group window.
d) Right-click the tracks in the mixer and choose Link Group
Lesson Review 451

Answers
1 True
2 a
3 True
4 c. Link the tracks in the Link Group window, available in the Fairlight menu.

Lesson 10
Sweetening the Mix
A professional sound mixer’s process Time

of enhancing audio is very similar to a This lesson takes approximately
colorist’s workflow for grading picture. 30 minutes to complete.
The colorist’s process is referred to Goals

as color correction grading or color
Applying Equalization
correction, while the process for to Dialogue Tracks 454
improving and embellishing sound
is often called sweetening. As the
Saving and Applying Track
name suggests, sweetening makes Presets in the Presets Library 475
everything sound better. Now that
Using Sidechain Compression to
the levels have been balanced and Automatically Dip Music Levels 478
tracks are panned, it’s time to focus
Applying EQ Carving to
on the soundtrack’s tonal qualities Improve Dialogue Clarity 482
and dynamic range. In this lesson, Lesson Review 485
you’ll continue with the pre-mixing
timeline as you explore the primary
audio sweetening tools, equalization
and dynamics processing, to improve
clarity and elevate the soundtrack.
NOTE A spirited debate rages among audio professionals about which comes
first: dynamics or equalization? This is a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario because
both processes effect the sound and each other. For this lesson, you’ll address
equalization first, but only because it makes sense to modify ADA’s voice after
adjusting the panning.
Things to Know about Dialogue Equalization

Audio frequencies are measured in Hertz (Hz) or thousands of Hertz, or kiloHertz (kHz).
Low numbers represent low frequencies, and high numbers represent high frequencies.
When you change the amount of gain in a frequency range, you either boost (increase)
or attenuate (reduce) the volume level of the frequencies within that range. Filtering out a
specific frequency or a narrow range of frequencies is referred to as notching or cutting.
The audible frequency range for the average human is between 20 Hz and 20 kHz (or
20,000 Hz). These frequencies are divided into three main categories:
— Bass 50–250 Hz
— Midrange 250–2300 Hz
— High 2500–20,000 Hz
The fundamental frequencies for human voices sit right in the low to lower-middle of the
audible frequency range and vary between men, women, and children:
— Men 80–160 Hz
— Women 165–255 Hz
— Children 250–300 Hz
Applying Equalization
to Dialogue Tracks
Equalization (EQ) controls manipulate specific frequencies to shape or enhance the overall
sound and are just like working with color, saturation, and hue in color correction. For
example, the human voice is based on a fundamental frequency shared by millions, but
additional frequencies add tonal qualities to “color” each voice and make it unique and
recognizable. The primary function of equalization is to lower frequencies that detract
from the voice and boost frequencies that clarify the overall sound.
454 Lesson 10 Sweetening the Mix

If you recall, the Fairlight page includes a 4-band parametric equalizer for each clip in the
Inspector, and a six-band parametric equalizer on each track, which is the perfect tool for
enhancing and “sweetening” audio tracks during the mix.
In the following exercises, you’ll look at two EQ techniques during mixing. First, you’ll use
the six-band EQ on ADA’s track to diminish ADA’s voice to sound as if it is coming from
speakers in the ship. Then, you’ll apply EQ to Emiliana’s track to “sweeten” her voice.
1 Open the timeline 10 Sweeten Mix Start.
This timeline includes all the pre-mixing work that you performed in the previous
lesson already applied.
2 Select the A3 ADA VO wFX track to brighten it in both the mixer and timeline.
Although selecting tracks isn’t a necessary step, it does make the tracks and clips
easier to spot while you work.
3 Solo the A3 ADA VO wFX track. If necessary, set a play range around the first clip in
the A3 track.
4 In the mixer, on the A3 Channel strip, double-click the EQ area to open the Equalizer
window. Move the Equalizer window to the timeline area to the left of the mixer.
5 In the Equalizer window, click the Band 1 and Band 6 buttons to turn on the high-pass
and low-pass filters.
Your goal in the next step is to carve away the high and low frequencies to limit the
bandwidth of ADA’s voice until she sounds more like her voice is coming from speakers
in the ship. Instead of doing this by the numbers, you’ll use your ears to determine
how slight or extreme to make the effect. The quality and quantity of the speakers

in the ship would also impact the sound of ADA’s voice, so use your sound designer’s
imagination and the mixer to create your desired effect.
Keep in mind that vocal clarity depends on the frequencies around 100 Hz–300 Hz
and intelligibility between 1 kHz–3 kHz. Both clarity and intelligibility are necessary for
great-sounding dialogue. You can carve away one end or the other for effect, but just
keep in mind that carving both ends too far may make it difficult for the audience to
understand the spoken words.
6 Start looped playback and listen to ADA’s voice while you drag the low-pass handle (6)
to the left and the high-pass handle (1) to the right, limiting ADA’s vocal frequencies
until her voice sounds like it is coming from speakers.
Using the low- and high-pass filters to limit the audible frequencies in ADA’s voice
track also lowered the overall level of her dialogue. If you noticed this on your own,
great ears! You can use the Gain slider on the right side of the EQ window to increase
the track level and make up any difference caused by the equalizer. Each time you add
processing to a track, it’s important to check and adjust the gain as you go to keep the
levels clean, clear, and right where they should be in the mix. This technique is referred
to as “gain staging” and is an incredibly important fundamental in mixing.

7 Continue looped playback and watch the meters for the A3 track. Use the Gain slider to
raise the gain as needed until the levels are in the dialogue range (-10 dB to -15 dB) and
average in the yellow.
8 Un-solo the A3 track and listen to it in the context of the other tracks. Make additional
adjustments to the high-pass and low-pass handles to get the effect you want. When
you’re satisfied with the results, stop playback.
Before you close the Equalizer window, this is a good time to do a quick before and after
comparison of ADA’s voice with and without the newly applied EQ.
Saving Alternate Settings for

Quick Comparison
One of the most valuable techniques for sound design and sweetening is to quickly listen
to and compare the sound before and after you have applied an effect. Unlike visual
comparison—where you can see more than one version of something at a time and
compare them side by side—with audio, you need to listen to one version and then the
other back and forth as many times as needed during playback. The Fairlight page in
DaVinci Resolve 18 offers several options for quickly comparing your plug-in effects, EQ,
and dynamics while you work. One option that you’re already familiar with is to simply click
the Bypass switch off and on in either the effect’s control window or the Inspector. The
Fairlight page mixer also includes single-click bypass for plug-in effects, Track FX, Pan, EQ,
and Dynamics by simply clicking the effect Bypass button or controls area for Pan, EQ, and
Dynamics, respectively, in the mixer channel strip.

The A/B Comparison toolset is located at the top of the audio effect control windows
and includes three buttons that let you compare two sets of adjustments of the same
effect. By default, all changes applied to an effect’s controls are saved in the A bank of
controls. Clicking the B button toggles the controls to a second bank of identical controls.
The (arrow) button between A and B can be used to copy settings from A to B or B to A,
depending on which button is selected at the time. The arrow changes direction based on
which settings are showing to indicate the direction of the copied settings.
In this exercise, you’ll use the A/B Comparison toolset to first compare the settings you made
to the default settings. Next, you’ll copy the settings from A to B and adjust the B settings
and compare. Finally, you’ll apply an EQ preset to the B controls then compare the result to A.
Keep in mind that your overall goal is to find the best computer voice for ADA in this scene.
1 Locate the A/B Comparison toolset at the top of the Equalization window.
2 Start looped playback of ADA’s voice. Feel free to narrow the play range to include only
a section of ADA speaking.
3 Continue looped playback. In the Equalizer window, click the B button to toggle on the
B set of controls.

The B controls are all set to the default settings, which is the same as toggling
the EQ off.
4 Continue looped playback, click back and forth between the A and B buttons to hear
ADA’s voice with and without the changes you applied earlier.
5 Click the A button to load the A controls, and then click the arrow button between A
and B to copy the A settings to the B bank of controls.
6 Click back and forth between A and B to see and hear that they have identical settings.
You could modify the B settings to try a similar but different-sounding effect. Instead,
let’s try one of the new EQ presets that come with DaVinci Resolve 18.
7 Stop playback. Show the B set of controls, if necessary.

8 Choose > General – Telephone effect, in the Equalizer presets dropdown menu.
9 Start looped playback and listen to the Telephone effect preset. Click back and forth
between B and A to compare the different EQ settings. Choose your favorite and
leave those settings active in the Equalizer window. When you’re finished, stop looped
playback, clear the play range, and close the Equalizer window.
Now that you have selected a favorite setting, your mini mixing mission has been
accomplished…for now. Just remember that more likely than not, if you are in a mixing
session with clients, they will want to hear another version of the effect or suggest
changes. Clients also appreciate being able to listen to and compare things for themselves.
Fortunately, you already have a plan B (A or B) ready to play and compare with a click
if needed.
Next, you’ll apply EQ to improve (sweeten) Emiliana’s voice.
Dialogue Frequency Level Enhancing and Troubleshooting

100 Hz–300 Hz Too low sounds thin; too high loses clarity
200 Hz–500 Hz Just right sounds warm; too high can sound boxy
250 Hz–750 Hz Potentially muddy if too high
600 Hz–1.1 kHz Potentially nasal/honky if too high

1 kHz–3 kHz Adjust for intelligibility
3 kHz–6 kHz Add presence
5 kHz–8 kHz Adjust sibilance (esses)
9 kHz–15 kHz Adjust sheen/sparkle
10 kHz–20 kHz Adjust breathiness/airiness
TIP A common rule of thumb when adjusting dialogue EQ is to “cut narrow and
boost wide.” Also, a little EQ goes a long way, so when possible, make subtle
changes (no more than 2–3 dB) just as you would when adjusting hue on the
color wheel.
Sweetening Dialogue with EQ

As you’ve just discovered, stripping the high and low ends of a voice recording is pretty
easy. In contrast, actively listening, delicately cutting, and selectively boosting frequencies
to improve a voice takes patience and practice. In this exercise, you’ll apply three different
bell curves to the EMILIANA track to find and reduce detracting frequencies, and then
selectively boost frequencies to enhance the voice.
Every voice is different, so no single EQ setting will magically improve all your dialogue.
However, you can tweak three key areas that will usually improve the overall sound
of dialogue.
First, you’ll start with a high-pass filter to roll off all the bass frequencies below 85 Hz.
Next, you’ll sweep the midrange frequencies around 250 Hz. This is the beefiest range of
most voices and can often become boxy, muffled, or muddy. Attenuating a wide range of
midrange frequencies, even by just a few decibels, can really warm up a voice and improve
its clarity. Finally, you’ll enhance the high frequencies to add vocal presence, intelligibility,
and sparkle by applying a nice wide boost around 3–5 kHz.
TIP You should first find and cut, or attenuate, the frequencies that detract from
the dialogue, and then boost the frequencies that sweeten the voice.

1 Mark the first clip in the A1 EMILIANA track. Zoom the timeline as needed while
you work.
2 In the mixer, double-click the EQ display for A1 EMILIANA to open the

Equalizer window.
NOTE If a track is distracting you during looped playback, such as the medlab
effects in A6, feel free to mute that track while you sweeten the dialogue.
4 In the Equalizer window, turn on Band 1. Listen to Emiliana’s dialogue while you drag
the Band 1 handle right to around 85 Hz. You can watch the Band 1 Frequency field to
see the current position of the handle.
You probably won’t hear any dramatic changes to the dialogue track by rolling off
the bass frequencies, and some re-recording mixers are against the idea entirely.
However, unless the voice you are working with is heavy on the bass end, you’re
unlikely to find any voice-enhancing frequencies below 85 Hz.
You can see the tracks frequencies for yourself with the help of a Fairlight FX plug‑in
that you’ve already used. In fact, DaVinci Resolve 18 offers two different Fairlight
FX plug-ins that can show frequencies in real time: Frequency Analyzer and Noise

Reduction. Since you are familiar with the Noise Reduction plug-in, and it shows
a vivid depiction of the dialogue frequencies, let’s use that one for this exercise.
5 In the mixer, in the A1 EMILIANA channel strip, click the Add Plug-In button
(the + symbol), and choose Restoration > Fairlight FX > Noise Reduction. Move the
Noise Reduction window above the Equalizer window so that you can easily see both
graphs at the same time.
Why are you adding the Fairlight FX Noise Reduction plug-in to a track in the middle
of this EQ sweetening session? Because this plug-in includes a powerful frequency
analyzer that displays the track’s frequencies during real-time playback. If you look
closely, you’ll see that both the Noise Reduction and EQ graphs show the same
frequency range from 20 Hz to 20 kHz.
If you recall, the purple line in the Noise Reduction graph represents the noise profile,
whereas the white line displays the live frequency analysis. If you reset the noise
profile, no frequencies will be removed from the signal until you click the Learn button.
In this case, you will just reset the noise profile so that you can focus on the white
graphical representation of the vocal frequencies.
6 In the Noise Reduction presets menu, choose Reset Noise Profile.
Now you are free to use the frequency analyzer as a guide while sweetening your tracks.
7 Start looped playback and watch the graph in the Noise Reduction window to see a live
frequency analysis of Emiliana’s voice.
As expected, the meatiest part of her vocal lives between 100–500 Hz.

8 Turn off the Noise Reduction plug-in and close the window.
NOTE You can leave the Noise Reduction plug-in applied to the track while
you finish the sweetening in case you wish to see the frequency analyzer again.
When you are finished with the EQ, you can delete the plug-in from the track.
Next, you can start sweeping Band 3 around 250 Hz with a wide bell curve to
hear what happens if you boost or attenuate around that range. As you sweep,
exaggerating the height of the bell curve by at least +10 or -10 dB will help you
determine how much adjusting the 250–500 Hz range affects this voice.
9 Start looped playback. Drag the Band 3 handle up to around +10 dB and listen to
Emiliana’s voice as you sweep the frequencies between 250–500 Hz. Experiment to
determine if tweaking within this range improves her voice or amplifies irritating vocal
qualities. Drag the Band 3 handle below the 0 dB line to around -10 dB and sweep the
same frequency range. When you are finished, stop playback.

You probably discovered that boosting her vocal frequencies between 350 Hz–450 Hz
brought out the most unflattering qualities. Also, cutting those frequencies too much
made her voice sound thin and lifeless.
10 Start playback and listen to Emiliana’s voice as you drag the Band 3 handle down by
around -2.0 dB at 350 Hz to attenuate that frequency range.

So far, so good; her voice sounds great. Now, let’s boost the high end with a wide curve
by 1–3 dB right around 3–5 kHz to brighten up the vocal presence and intelligibility.
TIP The secret to finding the sweet spot for vocal presence is to sweep
for sibilance, and when you find the annoying esses and whistles, back off
by 1–2 kHz and then reduce that amount to accentuate just a touch of brilliance
in the voice.
11 Start looped playback, if necessary. Sweep the Band 4 bell curve between 3–8 kHz
and listen for the sibilant esses and whistles. Sweep slightly toward the left until the
sibilance is gone, and then lower the curve to around 1–3 dB. Trust your instincts and
your ears. However, if you aren’t sure, try boosting by +2 dB at around 3.70 kHz.
12 During playback, toggle the Equalizer Bypass button off and on several times to hear
the difference in Emiliana’s voice without and with EQ applied.
13 Stop playback, close the Equalizer window, and clear the play range.
14 If necessary, unmute the A6 MEDLAB 1 track.

TIP Training your ears to recognize subtle dialogue differences takes time.
Though subtle, the EQ improves Emiliana’s voice significantly. This is another reason to
separate each character’s dialogue to its own track during editing so you can not only
balance the volume levels but also apply equalization to the entire track.
NOTE In DaVinci Resolve 18, you can choose the order of processing for each track
from the Order dropdown menu at the top of each channel strip. The default order
is F-E-D (FX, EQ, Dynamics). Other options in the Order dropdown menu include
EQ>DYN>FX, EQ>FX>DYN, DYN>EQ>FX, DYN>FX>EQ, and FX>DYN>EQ.
Controlling Dynamic Range

The difference between a good soundtrack and a fabulous, professional-sounding
soundtrack often comes down to dynamics control. Well-balanced dialogue tracks with
modest compression have more consistently strong levels and therefore stand out more in
a mix, thereby leading to a better experience for the audience. Keep in mind that the entire
audio post-production process is about delivering that awesome audience experience.
Viewers don’t care how it’s done; they just want it to be incredible.
If you recall, the difference between the loudest and quietest levels in a track is its dynamic
range. If you’ve ever worked with a waveform or Parade scope in the color page, controlling
a track’s dynamics is very similar to adjusting the white and black levels of a clip. Just think
of white as the loudest and black as the quietest.
In this set of exercises, you’ll apply compression to two dialogue tracks. First, you’ll apply
heavy compression to ADA’s track to emulate the processed yet consistent levels that
commonly suggest computer-generated voices. Then, you’ll apply standard compression
to Philip’s track to help his voice stand out in the mix.
1 Solo the A3 track. In the A3 track, set a play range around the first clip.

2 In the mixer, on the A3 Channel strip, double-click the Dynamics area to open the
Dynamics window. Move the Dynamics window to the timeline area to the left of
the mixer.
The Fairlight page Dynamics controls include four tools for modifying a track’s dynamic
range. So far, you have used only the Gate to eliminate low-level noise.
The Compressor is the most common control and is used to narrow the dynamic range
by lowering the highest peaks and bringing them closer to the lowest peaks. It’s a
great tool for bringing out some of the quieter spoken words, while simultaneously
lowering the level of the loudest words.
In this exercise, you’ll apply heavy compression and boost overall gain in the ADA
VO track to further suggest an acoustically constricted speaker sound. Adjusting the
frequencies was just the first step. Compressing the dynamic range will further modify
the computer’s voice to emulate the under-the-hood vocal processing in computer
speakers and two-way radios.
TIP Many devices—including smart phones, intercom systems, and two-

way radios—use heavy compression to limit the dynamic range so that each
spoken word can be heard. Obviously, the results don’t follow natural volume
fluctuations in vocal patterns but are a convenient enhancement to the voice
amplification process.

The first step for working with the compressor is to assess the dynamic range for
your track without compression applied. You can use the handy Input meters in the
Dynamics window to see the current track levels. In natural speech, the dynamic range
between two syllables in the same word can be high, so pay attention to the levels for
each syllable, as well as for words and phrases.
3 Start looped playback. In the Dynamics - ADA VO wFX window, watch the Input meters
to determine the lowest level (solid green) and the highest peak (yellow). When you are
finished, stop playback.
The lowest level was around -25 dB, while the highest was around -12 dB. This track
has a whopping 13 dB dynamic range! If you recall from when you were balancing
dialogue tracks, the lowest dialogue level for a whisper is -20 dB, and a loud voice
averages around -10 dB. That’s only a 10 dB difference between a whisper and a loud,
booming voice. Clearly, the dynamic range in this track is far too wide.
NOTE If you’re wondering why ADA’s levels are so much lower than the original
tracks that you balanced long ago, it’s because all the plug-in FX, EQ, panning,
and processing has taken a cumulative toll on ADA’s levels. So, while working
with the compressor, you can also boost the gain to return that output to
nominal levels.
Because ADA is supposed to have an artificial voice, the dynamic range should only
be around 2–3 dB. You can compress that dynamic range with—you guessed it—the
compressor.

4 In the Dynamics - ADA VO wFX window, click the Compressor switch to enable the
compressor controls.
The default compressor settings include a Threshold of -15 dB and a Ratio of 2.0:1.
The Threshold indicates where in the dynamic range you want to start compression.
So, in this example, any peaks over a Threshold value of -15 dB will be compressed by
a 2:1 ratio, which means that for every two decibels increase over -15 dB, only a 1 dB
increase will be permitted. When a track has a wide dynamic range, you can apply a
higher ratio value, such as 5:1, so that for every 5 decibels of increase over -15 dB, only
a 1 dB increase will be permitted. The heavier the compression, the more likely you will
start to hear it in the sound quality. However, because this scene features a computer
voice emitted from multiple speakers, the more compression, the merrier.
The lowest levels are between -25 and -30 dB, which is lower than the current Threshold.

6 Drag the Threshold knob to the left to lower it to around -25 dB. Then, drag the Ratio
knob to the right to raise it to a 12:1 ratio. As you apply the compression, listen to the
change. Watch the Output meter to see the compressed dynamic range.
The compression clearly worked, because the clip now has a dynamic range of around
3 dB. With this much compression applied at -25 dB, notice that the graph of the upper
end of the decibel curve (light green) is nearly horizontal, as are the peaks.
Let’s boost the gain to more clearly hear the heavy compression and make up for the
loss of gain caused by all the other effects and processing. The Make Up gain fader
lets you raise the overall sound level coming from the track’s compressor. You can still
adjust the track’s overall output level independently using the track fader in the mixer.

7 Change the play range to include only the words “Philip Maeda” starting at
01:00:40:11. Drag the Make Up gain fader up to +8.0 to raise the output level peaks to
around -12 dB.
8 Un-solo the A3 track. Play the timeline to hear ADA’s compressed voice along with the
other tracks. Toggle the Compressor switch off and on to compare the voice without
and with the compression applied. When you’re finished, move the Dynamics window
to the lower-right corner of the screen and clear the play range.
This was another successful exercise in voice manipulation. Although this is an

extreme example of compression and EQ, it should pave your way to experiment with
heavy compression when warranted in future projects.
NOTE The Dynamics, EQ, and Pan windows always update to show the
selected track. To save time during mixing, instead of closing the Dynamics, EQ,
or Pan windows, you can simply select the next track that you need to work on.
Compressing Dialogue Tracks

In this compression exercise, you’ll use similar methods to apply compression to Philip’s
track. This track was edited and balanced prior to mixing, so its dynamic range should
be much less than ADA’s track. Keep in mind that the reason for applying compression
is to limit the dynamic range of a track so that everything in your mix sounds balanced
and even.

Also, when compressing standard dialogue, you want to keep the Ratio in the 2:1 to
3:1 range. Doing so will keep the compression subtle while effectively creating a more
balanced dialogue track.
Let’s start by finding the high and low average levels in Philip’s track. To do so, you can
mark a play range around a group of clips.
1 Solo the A2 PHILIP track. Press R to enable Range Selection mode and drag a play
range around the four consecutive clips in the middle of Philip’s track (approximately
01:00:58:10 to 01:01:20:22).
Dragging the play range in the A2 track automatically selected the track and updated
the Dynamics window accordingly.
2 Start looped playback. In the Dynamics - PHILIP window, watch the Input meters to
determine the lowest and highest peaks.

Even though Philip’s clips were balanced, his peaks range from +5 to -15 dB. Although
this is just a section of conversational dialogue with natural fluctuations in level, some
light compression can rein in the excessive peaks and narrow the dynamic range.
3 Click the Compressor switch to enable the compressor controls. Look at the Output
levels during playback.
The default compression settings are working on this track. However, the dynamic
range is still a little high for conversational dialogue. Let’s lower the Threshold, raise
the Ratio slightly, and raise the Attack level to give the compressor a faster attack time
when it encounters levels above the threshold. Remember, the compression Threshold
value is the level at which the compressor kicks in; so, if you have strong dialogue
tracks, you can play it a little lower to rein in more of the louder peaks. In most cases,
you’ll set your dialogue compression Threshold between -10 to -20 dB.
4 Un-solo the A2 PHILIP track. Start looped playback, if necessary. In the Dynamics
window, set the compressor Threshold to around -20 dB, Attack to 20 ms, and Ratio to
around 3.0:1. Close the Dynamics window.
5 Clear the play range and play the scene from Philip’s first line of dialogue (around
01:00:22:00). Listen to the cumulative results of your dialogue sweetening and
dynamics processing. When you’re finished, stop playback.

What a difference a little mixing TLC can make on the dialogue tracks. All three
characters, voices really stand out in the mix now.
TIP In the Fairlight page, the floating windows—such as plug-in controls,

Pan, EQ, and Dynamics—will stay in front of the full cinema viewer if you want
to watch the playback full-screen while making adjustments during playback.
Also, pressing Esc will close the active floating window.
Saving and Applying Track

Presets in the Presets Library
DaVinci Resolve 18 includes a Presets Library that you can use to save track settings and
apply them to another track, timeline, or project. In this exercise, you’ll save the settings
from the ADA VO wFX track so you can apply them to another timeline containing an
ADA track.
1 Choose Fairlight > Presets Library to open the Presets Library window.
You’ll see a list of tracks in the current timeline.
2 In the Presets Library tracks list, select the ADA VO wFX track.

3 In the upper left of the Presets Library, click the Filter By dropdown menu to see the
presets options.
In the dropdown menu, you can save Equalizer, Dynamics, Plugins, or Global track
presets such as volume, panning, and track color. For this example, you’ll create a
Global preset for ADA’s computer voice.
4 Choose Global Track Presets.
5 Click the Save New button to open the Create Global track preset dialog. Name the
preset ADA computer voice, and click OK.

The ADA computer voice global preset appears in the list to the left of the Presets
Library. Now, you can apply that preset to any other track in this or any other timeline.
Let’s open another timeline containing ADA’s voice and test this new global preset.
6 Open the timeline, 10 Mixing Add Preset.
This is an alternate version of the previous timeline in which the A3 ADA VO track has
no plug-ins, EQ, or Dynamics applied.
7 Click anywhere in the Presets Library window to update it to the new timeline.
8 In the Presets Library, select the ADA VO track. Select the ADA computer voice global
track preset and click Apply
All the settings, including track color, are applied to the ADA VO track.
9 Press Esc to close the Presets Library.
As you can see, the Presets Library offers a powerful way to save and apply your track
settings throughout the post-production process.

Using Sidechain Compression to
Automatically Dip Music Levels
Previously, you applied keyframes in the timeline to dynamically control volume levels
of individual clips within a track. You also used the compressor to control the dynamic
range of an entire dialogue track. In addition to standard compression, the Dynamics
window also offers sidechain compression, which lets you use the signal from one track
to control the amount of compression applied to another track. Sidechain compression is
often referred to as auto-ducking because it automatically “ducks” or attenuates the level
of one track based on the content of another. One of the most common uses of sidechain
compression in dialogue scenes is to use the dialogue tracks to control the compression
on the music tracks.
In this exercise, you’ll work with a different scene from Hyperlight that has a heavy music
bed under the dialogue. First, you’ll apply compression to the dialogue tracks. Then, you’ll
set up the sidechain compression on the Music track so that the music level is reduced
whenever dialogue is spoken in the dialogue tracks. Let’s get started.
1 Open the 10 Auto Ducking Start timeline.
2 If necessary, show the monitoring panel (meters) and mixer.
3 Play the timeline and listen to the competing music and dialogue levels.
4 In the mixer, open the Dynamics window for the A1 EMILIANA track and turn on the
compressor.
For this exercise, you’ll use the default compressor settings on the A1 and A2 tracks.
5 On the right side of the compressor settings, click the Send button to send the levels
of this track to the compressor on another track.
Notice that the Send button turns yellow when active. Also, the Bus Outputs section of
the mixer shows that the signal will be output via sidechain compression in addition to
the Main 1 and 5.1 bus outputs. You’ll learn more about busses and signal routing in
the next lesson.

6 Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the A2 ADA 2 track.
7 Click the header for the Music track to select that track and update the Dynamics
window to the newly selected track.
8 Turn on the compressor. Click the Listen button to automatically feed all “sent” levels to
the sidechain of the compressor on this track.
9 Set a range around the first dialogue exchange between Emiliana and ADA that
includes Emiliana’s first line, “ADA where am I?” and ends after ADA’s line, “Philip’s
cryopod has lost power; his oxygen level is critical.”
10 Start looped playback. Select the A6 Music track.

11 During playback, lower the Threshold and raise the Ratio. Continue adjusting these
controls until the music dips sufficiently beneath the dialogue levels, and you can
clearly hear every spoken word. Don’t worry if the music seems to cut in and out. You’ll
finesse those levels next.
If you aren’t sure what values to set, try a Threshold around -30 and Ratio of 4:1 or 5:1.
12 Expand the range from the beginning of the first yellow clip in the A1 track to the
beginning of the fourth yellow clip. The expanded play range will make it easier to
smooth the transition between the music with and without dialogue.
The music is now compressed to be less loud during dialogue. Now it’s time to adjust
the Attack value to determine how quickly the music level is reduced, raise the Hold
value so the music level doesn’t fluctuate wildly, and increase the Release value so the
volume adjustment won’t end too abruptly. These controls are easier to use during
playback when you can hear them in action.
13 Select the Music track, if necessary. Start looped playback and change the Attack
value first to determine how quickly (by milliseconds) the music level is lowered when
dialogue levels are detected.
14 Set the Hold value to smooth how long the level stays consistent.
15 Set the Release value to determine how gradually the music level will return to the
uncompressed level.

You should hear that whenever there is dialogue in the A1 or A2 tracks, the music
volume automatically lowers, or “ducks.”
16 When you’re finished, clear the range and play the entire scene from the beginning to
hear your ducking in action. Feel free to reopen the Dynamics controls for the Music
track to further modify the levels.
These controls take practice, so the more you use them, the easier it will be to set
up and apply sidechain compression to your own projects. However, as you can
hear for yourself, this is an awesome way to quickly “duck” your music levels beneath
your dialogue tracks. If you would like to open a finished example of this scene with
sidechain compression applied, open the timeline 11 Auto Ducking Finished. As a
result, you should hear that whenever speech plays, the music volume is automatically
lowered. Adjust the Threshold and Ratio to set the amount of this gain reduction
and adjust Attack, Hold, and Release to set how quickly gain reduction responds to
changes in the sidechain level (as defined by the Send levels).
The levels may be playing nicely, but they are competing in the same frequency range.

Applying EQ Carving to
Improve Dialogue Clarity
The last “sweetening” technique that you’ll learn in this lesson is one of the easiest to apply
and is as valuable a mixing staple as brown sugar on Thanksgiving. EQ carving involves
reducing a wide curve of low-mid frequencies in the music or effects tracks to allow the
fundamental dialogue frequencies to shine through. Competing frequencies all in the
same range at the same time can “muddy” dialog clarity. This is similar to having too much
of the same color in a shot. For example, a shot of red apples and strawberries on a fancy
red tablecloth against a red brick wall may reflect the creative vision of the director, but
at the same time presents a challenge for the audience to discern what is important and
where they should be looking. If the focus of the “red’ scene is the fruit, a colorist may
choose to help the fruit stand out by lowering the saturation or brightness of the other
red elements. The same is true if music or background sound effects are dominant in the
same frequency range as the dialogue. When this happens, and it happens often, you can
change the pitch and volume levels of the background sounds or apply some EQ carving. In
this exercise, you’ll carve the low-mid range frequencies on the music track.
1 Open the 10 Auto Ducking Finished timeline.
2 In the timeline, set a range that includes the first two orange clips in the A2 track.
3 Select the music track. In the mixer, double-click the EQ area of the Music channel strip
to open the EQ window.
4 In the EQ window, drag the Band 3 bell curve all the way to the highest position, +20
dB. Start looped playback and listen to the music’s exaggerated mid-low frequencies
from the bell curve. Sweep the curve toward the left and right between 100–500Hz to
hear how the different frequencies “muddy” the dialogue.
If you recall from earlier in this lesson, we used the Noise Reduction plug-in to see
the frequency analyzer of her voice and that the meatiest part of her voice is between
100–500Hz. Therefore, that is the same range that needs carving. First, you’ll need to
widen the bell curve by adjusting the Q Factor control.

5 At the bottom of the Band 3 controls, drag the Q Factor control to the far-left position,
0.3, to create the widest curve.
6 Continue playback and drag the bell curve down to -20 dB, and then sweep the wide
curve between 125 and 500 and listen to the simultaneous change in dialogue clarity
at the expense of the robust musical score. Set the Band 3 Frequency to around 200.
7 Narrow the play range to Emiliana and ADA’s first lines. Set the curve to between -5 dB
and -10 dB. Toggle the EQ window off and on to hear the difference with and without
the carving.
Applying EQ Carving to Improve Dialogue Clarity 483

8 Feel free to continue experimenting with your carving sills. When you’re finished, stop
playback and close the EQ window.
The next time you have background or music tracks that are competing with your
dialogue tracks, and you don’t want to lower the levels, break out your EQ and
carve away!
More Sweetening and Compression Please!

Open the timeline 10 Mix Add More Sweetening.
Now that you’ve applied EQ to Emiliana’s track and compression to Philip’s track, it’s time
to finish the dialogue sweetening. Take a few minutes to add a little EQ to Philip’s track and
some compression to Emiliana’s. Feel free to proceed on your own without any guidance.
Or, you can apply the methods that you used earlier for ADA. Your final goal is to deliver
great-sounding dialogue in your soundtrack—even if one of the characters sounds like
a computer.

Lesson Review
1 What is a common reason for applying a compressor to a dialogue track?
a) To make noise sound like a computer warble
b) To make the sound seem like it is coming from a small space
c) To reduce the dynamic range between the loudest and quietest peaks in the track
d) To create the aural illusion of a physical barrier
2 How can you use sidechain compression (auto-ducking)?

a) To use the dialogue track to control compression on a music track
b) To remove bird sounds in your dialogue tracks
c) To control levels for clips outside of the timeline
d) To compare volume levels side-by-side between tracks
3 Where can you save global track settings so that you can apply them to another track?
a) Dynamics window
b) Media pool
c) Effects Library
d) Presets Library
4 True or false? Applying EQ carving to a music track is the same as adding keyframes to
the volume curve to dip the track’s sound when there is spoken dialogue.
Lesson Review 485

Answers
1 c
2 a
3 d
4 False

Lesson 11
Simplifying the
Mix with Busses
The goal of mixing is to balance track Time

levels so they all sound good as a This lesson takes approximately
whole. Managing and mixing tracks 30 minutes to complete.
and their cumulative levels is easy Goals

with a handful of tracks and more
Exploring the Fairlight
challenging as track counts climb to Bussing Formats 488
several hundred or even a thousand
or more tracks. Busses are a means
Creating an Auxiliary
of controlling signal flow from Reverb Bus 497
the tracks to the output and offer
Simplifying Mixing
various solutions for sharing effects Using Busses 507
processing, assigning similar tracks
Creating Additional
to fewer faders, and even creating Output Busses 518
multiple outputs in different formats Lesson Review 535
to meet complex delivery requirements.
DaVinci Resolve 18 includes the

powerful Flex Bus bussing architecture
that is completely user defined and
offers unlimited signal flow possibilities.
Older “legacy” projects use the more
traditional Fixed bussing format
consisting of mains, submixes, and
auxiliary busses.
In this lesson, you’ll explore both of Fairlight’s bussing options as you create and assign a
variety of busses to simplify the mixing process.
Are Other Sound Mixers Working on the Same Project?

In large-scale Hollywood films and shows, several other mixing teams often work in
parallel prior to the final mixing phase. Those mixers may include a dialogue mixer, mixers
for ensemble pieces, and sound effects mixers. Like the re-recording mixer, their jobs
are to balance and sweeten (enhance) the sound and levels of their respective tracks and
narrow them down to a few well-balanced tracks, submixes, or bounced submixes for the
re-recording mixer to blend with the other sound elements.
NOTE If you are working with an earlier version of DaVinci Resolve, you will be
limited to the legacy Fixed Bus format. Not to worry; the Hyperlight project uses the
Fixed Bus format and has not created any workflow limitations.
Exploring the Fairlight

Bussing Formats
All new projects created in DaVinci Resolve 18 are set to the new Flex Bus format. Prior to
adding media and timelines to your project, you have the option to switch the project
to the traditional Fixed Bus format in the Project Settings window. The primary difference
between the two bus formats is that legacy Fixed Bus projects have a set number of
predetermined busses, including main busses, submix busses, and auxiliary busses. While
the Flex Bus format allows you to assign tracks and busses in any way that works for your
project, in this exercise, you’ll create a new project and timeline so you can see the default
signal routing in the Flex Bus format. Then you’ll change the project settings to the Fixed
Bus format for comparison. First, it’s a good idea to reset the DaVinci Resolve layout so the
project opens in the default project layout.
1 Choose Workspace > Reset UI Layout.
2 Choose File > New Project.
488 Lesson 11 Simplifying the Mix with Busses

3 In the Create New Project dialog, type Bus Test. Click Create.
The new Bus Test project opens. Notice that the meters and mixer show a single
output bus: Bus 1. All projects are created with an output bus, even if there isn’t a
timeline or media. To use the bus, there must be a timeline.
4 Choose File > New Timeline.
5 In the Create New Timeline dialog’s Timeline Name field, type Flex 20. Set the No. of
Audio Tracks to 20. Click Create.

The Flex 20 timeline opens with 20 stereo tracks and one bus (Bus 1) showing in the
timeline, monitoring panel, and mixer.
6 Expand the mixer for a better view of the tracks. Notice in the Bus Outputs section of
the mixer that each track is assigned to Bus 1.

You can see the current bussing structure and create new busses in the Bus Format
dialog available in the Fairlight menu.
7 Choose Fairlight > Bus Format to open that dialog.
The Bus Format dialog includes buttons to Add Bus, Duplicate, and Remove busses.
Here you can also change a bus name, format, and color.
8 Click OK to close the Bus Format window.
As you have just witnessed, new projects and timelines come with all tracks automatically
assigned to the Bus 1 output. Now let’s change the project to the legacy Fixed Bus format.
Changing the Project Bus Format

The current project is in the default Flex Bus format. You can easily change a new, empty
project’s bus format in the project settings. In this exercise, you’ll change the bus format
from Flex Bus to the legacy Fixed Bus format.

1 Press Shift-9 to open the Project Settings window. In the Project Settings sidebar, click
the Fairlight tab to show the Fairlight settings.
The Bussing mode area near the top of the Fairlight settings includes a single
checkbox option to “Use fixed bus mapping.” At the moment, this option is unavailable
(dimmed) because the project contains a timeline and therefore is not empty.
2 Click Cancel to close the Project Settings window.
3 In the media pool, select the Flex 20 timeline and press Delete. In the Delete Selected
Timeline dialog, click the Delete button.
Now the project is empty, and you can change the bus format.

4 Press Shift-9 to open the Project Settings window.
The Fairlight Settings panel should be showing.
5 In the Bussing mode settings, check the “Use fixed bus mapping” option. Then
click Save.
The Project Settings window closes, and the empty project updates to the Fixed Bus
format. You can easily identify the Fixed Bus format because the default output bus is
automatically assigned as M1 (Main 1).
6 Create a new timeline named Fixed 20 with 20 stereo tracks.
The Fixed 20 timeline opens with 20 stereo tracks and one bus (Main 1) showing in the
timeline, monitoring panel, and mixer.

7 Expand the mixer for a better view of the tracks.
If you look closely at the mixer labels, you’ll see that instead of a Bus Outputs label,
you’ll see a label titled Main. Within the Main row on each channel strip, you will see a
[1] that indicates there is 1 main bus and that the tracks are assigned to that bus.
Technically, the output for either timeline Flex 20 or Fixed 20 would sound identical
because in both cases each track’s signal flows to a single output bus.
Let’s look at the Bus Format window to see how it differs from the Flex Bus project.
8 Choose Fairlight > Bus Format to open that dialog.

As you can see, there are subtle differences in the Bus Format window for a Fixed Bus
project. Instead of a single button to create busses that are completely flexible and
user defined, there are separate buttons for each of the fixed formats. Additionally,
with the Fixed Bus format, not only are the types of busses defined, but also how many
of each you can make per timeline.
NOTE The channel format of each bus can be changed any time in the Bus
Format window, regardless of whether the project is mapped to the Fixed Bus
or Flex Bus format.
With DaVinci Resolve 18, you can convert a legacy Fixed Bus project to the Flex Bus
format with a single click. In fact, the Hyperlight project that you’ve been working with
was recently converted from Fixed Bus to Flex Bus for this training guide. Let’s convert
the current empty project to the Flex Bus format.
10 Press Shift-9 to open the Project Settings window.
11 In the Bussing section of the Project Settings Fairlight panel, click “Use fixed bus
mapping” to deselect that option.

12 In the Convert to Flex Bus dialog, click Convert.
The Fixed Bus project and Fixed 20 timeline are now in the Flex Bus format. Notice that the
bus is called Main 1 instead of Bus 1. That is a telltale sign of a converted project. It is also
useful in the next series of exercises because the Hyperlight project was also converted
from Fixed Bus to Flex Bus and therefore the busses will have literal names based on their
function, as they did once upon a time when they were Fixed.
Now that you’ve seen and compared the default bus settings for new projects in both Flex
Bus and Fixed Bus formats, you’re ready to start working with busses in the Hyperlight and
GOW trailer projects.
NOTE For more detailed information on the different types of busses, please refer
to the Fairlight chapters in the DaVinci Resolve User Reference.

Next, you’ll resume your work on the Hyperlight project, which originally was mapped to
the legacy Fixed Bus format. The different bussing techniques you will apply to that project
will also work in either bus format. At the end of this lesson, you’ll open the GOW trailer
that you worked on in Lesson 01 and apply your new bussing skills to that project.
1 Press Shift-1 to open the Project Manager.
2 In the Project Manager, locate the version of the Hyperlight Audio Post project that
you have been working on for the previous lessons. It should have your initials after
the name of the project.
3 Double-click the icon for your working copy of Hyperlight to open the project. You may
be prompted to save changes to the Bus Test project. Click Save.
4 In the media pool, change the display format to List view.
5 In the Master bin list, select the Lesson 11 bin.
6 Open the timeline 11 Mixing Busses Start.
Since you reset the UI layout in the previous exercise, the viewer, monitoring panel,
and mixer have returned to their default size and position.
7 Hide the media pool. Adjust the height of the monitoring panel and mixer as well as
the position of the viewer to your liking.
Creating an Auxiliary Reverb Bus

This scene is coming along well. The tracks sound great, the levels are pretty good, and it’s
time to add a little reverb to the whole scene so that the dialogue and sound effects in the
room sound as if they are in a real room. Previously, you applied plug-ins to individual clips
and tracks. What would you do if you had multiple tracks that needed the same effect at
the same time? Instead of adding the same plug-in to every track, you can simply send the
tracks to the plug-in via an auxiliary (Aux) bus. Doing so saves processing and time.
In the next series of exercises, you’ll create an auxiliary bus with reverb for the dialogue
and medlab effects.

In this exercise, you’ll create an auxiliary bus for the FairlightFX Reverb plug-in and send
the dialogue and medlab tracks to the Aux bus to add reverb.
1 If necessary, open the 11 Mixing Busses Start timeline.
2 Choose Fairlight > Bus Format to open the Bus Format window.
The project currently contains one bus: the default main bus named Main 1 (M1),
named as such by its Fixed Bus origins. This Main 1 bus is, as the name suggests, a
main output. The Format and Channels columns indicate that this bus is in stereo with
two channels (left and right).
3 Click the Add Bus button to add a new bus to the list. This bus (Bus 2) will be used as an
auxiliary bus for the Reverb effect.
The new Bus 2 appears below Main 1 in the Bus Format pane.
Let’s rename the bus and change its color. Because most of the tracks are mono, you
can leave the Format set to mono. If you need to change the Format from mono to
stereo, you can do so at any time in the Bus Format window.
4 In the User Name column, double-click the Bus 1 name, and enter VERB (an
abbreviation for reverb).
5 In the Color column, change the VERB color pop-up menu to beige.

6 Click OK to close the Bus Format window. Expand the mixer to see the new Bus 2 VERB
bus to the right of the Bus 1 output. Notice that the new Bus 2 bus—labeled VERB—is
also to the right of the Main 1 meter in the monitoring panel.
You are all set up with the Aux bus. The next step is to add the Reverb plug-in.

7 In the mixer, on Bus 2, click the Add Effect button and choose Reverb > Fairlight
FX > Reverb.
The Reverb window opens, and the Reverb plug-in appears in the Aux 1 effects slots.
8 In the Reverb window, in the Preset pop-up menu, choose Cathedral. Close the
VERB window.
Obviously, the Cathedral preset is too much reverb for this scene, but it will work great
for demonstrating the auxiliary reverb. You can always change the reverb settings
later. The last step is to send the signal from the tracks to the Aux bus.
Sending Track Signals to the Auxiliary Bus

At the moment, the auxiliary VERB bus is configured with the Reverb plug-in ready to go,
but you still have to send the signal from the tracks to the bus. This is one of those times
when audio mixing terms and functions are one and the same. That’s right, you are about
to employ the use of sends to do exactly what their name implies. If you look closely at the
mixer, you’ll find the Bus Sends between the EQ and Pan controls.
1 Select the A1 track to highlight it in the mixer.

2 In the mixer, in the A1 channel strip, click the Bus Sends Add (+) button and choose
VERB from the pop-up menu.
The VERB bus is now in the Bus Sends list for the A1 track. If you hover over the bus
name, you can access the Bypass, Controls, and Delete buttons for the VERB bus.
3 Hover the pointer over the VERB bus and click the Controls button to open the Bus
Sends – EMILIANA window.
The Bus Send is already on. The Send Level adjusts the amount of signal sent from the
track to the bus.
4 Drag the Send Level handle to 0.0 to send the full signal to the VERB bus.

NOTE The send level is also visible as a colored bar beneath the Bus name in
the Bus Sends area of the channel strip. Bus names in the mixer match their
user-defined color in the Bus Format window. You change bus color in either
the Bus Format window or Tracks Index.
5 Play the first clip in the A1 EMILIANA track to hear it with the auxiliary bus Reverb
effect applied.
Hold on. There is no reverb? Why? We forgot to plug it in. That is, in terms of audio
signal flow, the signal may be routed from track to track, track to bus, bus to track,
bus to bus, or all of these options as long as it eventually makes it to an output bus if
you want to hear it. In this timeline, all the tracks are assigned to the Main 1 output
bus as you can clearly see in the mixer. The VERB bus still needs to be assigned to an
output bus.
6 In the mixer, in the Bus Outputs area of the VERB bus, click the Add (+) button and
choose Main 1 from the pop-up menu.
Now you should be able to hear the A1 track with the Reverb effect.

7 Play the first clip in the A1 EMILIANA track to hear the resulting sound as it is sent from
the track to the auxiliary VERB bus where the Reverb effect is applied to the signal as
it continues to the Main 1 output bus and on to your computer speakers. Do not close
the Bus Sends - EMILIANA window; you will need it again shortly.
Emiliana’s voice has definitely picked up the reverb. In fact, it’s so wet that her voice
is practically drowning in reverb. No worries, you’ll fix the reverb levels in a minute.
First, let’s send the other tracks that need the same reverb effect. Rather than doing
each track separately, let’s assign the VERB bus to the A2, A3, and A6 tracks at the
same time.
TIP DaVinci Resolve 18 has a new “do to all selected” shortcut feature that is
incredibly handy for applying changes to multiple selected tracks or busses at
the same time. All you need to do is hold the Option/Alt key while making the
changes to a track or bus, and the same change is applied to all selected. These
changes include things like track height, color, track state (arm, solo or mute),
track format, and mixer controls and bus assignments, etc.
8 In the timeline, select the A2 track. Command-select (macOS) or Ctrl-select (Windows)

the A3 and A6 tracks.
9 In the mixer, hold Option/Alt and add the VERB Bus Send to the A2 track.
Next, you’ll use the same Option/Alt trick to adjust the Send Level for all three tracks
at once. Speaking of tricks, you can also double-click the Send Level handle to set it
to 0.0 automatically. Let’s use both time-saving techniques to set up the remaining
Bus Sends.

10 If necessary, open the Bus Sends window for the A2, A3, or A6 track. If you need to
open the Bus Sends window, you will also need to reselect the A2, A3, and A6 tracks
before moving to the next step.
11 Hold Option/Alt and double-click the Send Level handle on the open Bus Sends
window. It doesn’t matter which selected track’s window is open. Whatever you do to
one will affect all the selected tracks as long as you hold Option/Alt.
12 Close the Bus Sends window. Deselect the tracks.
The last step is to use the fader on the Bus 2 VERB bus in the mixer to raise or lower
the amount of reverb applied to the sends. This is a fantastic way to control effects on
multiple tracks over time. Keep in mind that any changes you make to the auxiliary bus
levels will apply to all the incoming sends. If you want to vary the amount of the effect
on a specific track, lower the Send Level on that track’s send.
13 Move the playhead to the beginning of the first clip in the A2 PHILIP track.

14 Start playback and listen to a few seconds of the dialogue with the heavy reverb
applied. Then, slowly lower the Bus 2 (VERB) fader to decrease the amount of reverb
until it is barely noticeable in the mix. Stop playback.
As you just demonstrated, using Bus Sends and auxiliary busses is a quick and easy
technique for applying effects to multiple tracks.
Customizing Auxiliary Bus Effects Parameters

Now that you’ve seen and heard the Cathedral reverb preset with the tracks, let’s change
that Reverb effect preset to apply a more realistic sound. To customize an effect applied
to a track or bus, you just hover your pointer over the effect in the mixer and click the
Controls button to open the corresponding plug-in window.
1 In the mixer, hover the pointer over the Reverb effect in the Bus 2 VERB bus to see the
available options buttons, including Bypass and Controls.

2 Click the Controls button to open the VERB - Slot 1 window.
3 In the Reverb window, click the Reset button to reset the plug-in to the default
settings. Feel free to adjust the reverb settings to suit yourself.
The default reverb settings more closely match the room in the scene.
4 Close the Reverb window. Play the scene from the beginning to hear how it sounds
with the reverb applied to the dialogue and medlab tracks.
5 Continue playback and adjust the Aux VERB fader, if necessary, to find a realistic reverb
level for the scene.
It’s truly amazing how the cumulative mixing techniques in this lesson, plus a hint of
reverb, elevate this soundtrack.

Simplifying Mixing Using Busses
You already know how to balance individual clip levels, but if you have numerous similar
tracks that are already balanced—such as dialogue, sound effects, or music—you can
combine them and assign each of their output signals to a bus to create a submix. As the
name suggests, a submix lets you independently mix a subset of the tracks.
Submix busses are signal paths, or vehicles, that route the signal from multiple tracks to a
new channel strip in which the sum of the signals can be controlled as a single track.
In this exercise, you’ll create submix busses for the dialogue, music, and background
FX tracks.
1 In the Fairlight page, choose Fairlight > Bus Format to open the Bus Format window.
2 Click the Add Bus button three times to add three new busses to the list.
The three new busses appear in the Bus Format pane below Main 1 and are
sequentially named Bus 3, Bus 4, and Bus 5. These will be the new submix (sub) busses.

Let’s name the sub busses and change their formats and colors based on the tracks
they will contain.
In the Name column, double-click the Bus 3 name and enter DIAL. Then, change the
name of Bus 4 to MUSIC and Bus 5 to BG FX.
3 In the Format column, change the Format of the MUSIC and BG FX busses to Stereo.
Leave the DIAL bus Format as Mono.
Finally, let’s change the colors of each sub bus.
4 In the Color column, change the DIAL bus color to yellow, the MUSIC bus color to navy,
and BG FX bus color to pink.

The new sub bus names and colors also appear in the mixer and the meters.
You are all set up with submix busses. The next step is to assign the tracks to go into
those submixes.

TIP To reduce the height of the mixer channel strips, you can use the Mixer
Options menu (…) to deselect mixer controls that you don’t need to display, such as
Pan, EQ, and Dynamics if you are merely assigning tracks to busses. Additionally, if
you ever notice that controls are missing from the mixer, they have been hidden via
the Mixer Options menu.
Assigning Tracks to Submix Busses

You must now assign the tracks that you want to output to each bus. There are two areas
of the interface that you can assign tracks to busses: the mixer and the Bus Assign window.
Since you’re already familiar with assigning busses in the mixer, start there.
The middle section of the mixer always shows your Bus Sends and Bus Outputs as well
as the current signal flow of every track so you know where each is assigned. In this
exercise, use the bus controls in the mixer to assign tracks to one of the new submix
busses that you created. For now, each track will still be assigned to the Main 1 output.
With DaVinci Resolve 18, routing audio from tracks to multiple busses is lossless, so you
can assign a track to numerous busses for more mixing and monitoring flexibility as well as
simplified deliverables later.
In this exercise, you will select all the like tracks and assign them to their intended submix
output bus. Tracks can be selected in the timeline, Tracks Index, or mixer. To keep things
interesting, try all three as you assign tracks to the three sub busses.
1 Drag the left edge of the mixer to the left to expand it, if necessary.
2 Press Shift-Z to fit all the timeline clips horizontally in the visible timeline.
TIP You can expand or compact the mixer at any time by dragging its left
edge. The busses are always visible to the right of the mixer. Also, with
DaVinci Resolve 18, busses can be reordered and moved to any position in the
timeline by simply dragging them up or down in Tracks Index.

3 In the mixer, drag across the fader area of the A1, A2, A3, and A4 tracks to select all
four of the dialogue tracks.
These tracks need to be assigned to the Bus 3 DIAL bus output.
4 In the Bus Outputs area of the A1 EMILIANA track, hold Option/Alt and click the Add (+)
button and choose DIAL from the pop-up menu.
The Bus Outputs for the selected tracks now include both Main 1 and the DIAL output
busses. Next, you’ll assign the Music tracks, which in this example includes only one
track. Technically, a single music track doesn’t need a submix bus, but if this were a
large project there might be many more tracks or other reels that do have multiple
music tracks that will be added to this timeline later. Plus, working with submix faders
greatly simplifies mixing, as you will see in a few minutes.
5 In the timeline, deselect all tracks. Select the A10 Music track. This isn’t necessary but
helps in identifying the track you will work with in the mixer.

6 In the A10 Music track in the mixer, add the MUSIC bus to the track’s Bus Outputs.
The last submix bus to assign is the BG FX. For this example, you’ll go to the Tracks
Index to select the A6 MEDLAB 1 track and the A8 DRONE 1 track. The A7 MEDLAB
2 track is still part of a linked group with A6, so it will be included in the selection
automatically.
7 Show the Tracks Index. Select the A6 MEDLAB 1 track, and then Command-click
(macOS) or Ctrl-click (Windows) the A7 DRONE 1 track to select it too.
8 In the mixer, assign the BG FX output bus to the selected tracks.

9 When you’re finished, hide the Index.
You have successfully assigned most of the tracks to a submix bus, and you can see
the signal flow easily in the mixer. Let’s do one more thing to further simplify the
signal flow. Instead of the tracks going to both the Main 1 and the submix busses, let’s
unassign the Main 1 output on all the tracks that are also assigned to a submix bus.
You have the skills to do this now, so the directions will be sparse.
10 Select all the tracks that are assigned to a submix bus (DIAL, MUSIC, or BG FX).
11 Hold Option/Alt and click the Delete button (x) on any of the selected tracks in
the mixer.

12 Deselect the tracks.
Done! In just a few clicks, you unassigned the Main 1 Bus Output for seven tracks.
Now that you’ve removed the Main 1 output bus from the individual tracks that are
assigned to submixes, how do you hear them? Right: this is the output bus question
again. If you already realized that you need to assign the submix busses to the Main
1 output bus, you are thinking along the lines of signal flow. If not, the last step is to
assign the submix busses (DIAL, MUSIC, and BG FX) to the Main 1 output bus.
13 In the mixer, select Bus 3 (DIAL), Bus 4 (MUSIC), and Bus 5 (BG FX).
14 Hold Option/Alt and click the Add Bus Output button for one of the selected busses.
Choose Main 1 from the pop-up menu.
15 Now the signal flow of every track and bus ends up at the Main 1 bus output. The only
way to know if it worked is to listen to the playback.
16 Start playback from anywhere in the timeline. You should hear all the tracks as
intended. If not, check the signal flow and try again!
TIP When troubleshooting the signal flow of a “silent” track, look at the track’s
Bus Output and make sure that it has an output bus. If it has an output bus other
than the main output bus used for playback and monitoring, make sure that the
assigned output bus is connected to the main output bus.

Viewing Bus Mapping in the
Bus Assign Window
Now that you’ve assigned all the busses and confirmed that they work in playback, let’s
look at the Bus Assign Window, which clearly displays the timeline’s tracks and bus
assignments in both thumbnail and list views.
The Bus Assign window has two sections. At the top of the window, you’ll find a list of all
available busses. The rest of the window shows the available tracks. In the Available Tracks
area, initials under each track name indicate the current assignment for each track.
When working with a project in the Flex Bus format, all busses can be assigned as a Send
and/or Output. The lowercase initial “s” followed by the bus number and name indicates
the track or bus is assigned to a Bus Send, while a lowercase initial “o” followed by the bus
number and name means it is assigned to an Output Bus.
1 Choose Fairlight > Bus Assign to open the Bus Assign Window.
At a glance, the Bus Assign Window tells the entire story of how the tracks and busses
are assigned. Bus assignments are shown below each track name in the lower section.
Let’s look at the bus assignments in list view.

2 In the upper-right corner of the Bus Assign window, click the List View button.
In list view, you can clearly see the Source, Bus Sends, and Bus Outputs.
3 Close the Bus Assign window.
NOTE The Bus Assign window can be used to assign and unassign tracks and
busses. For more information about using the Bus Assign window, refer to that
section of the DaVinci Resolve Reference Manual available via the Help menu.
All the tracks are assigned to the main output or a sub bus, so you can see and hear them
in action in the mixer.

Working with Busses in the Mixer
Now that you’ve verified that all the signal flow is working for all the tracks, let’s take a
minute to test-drive the new submix bus faders in the mixer. If this were a real mix, you’d
also need a submix for the sound fx (FX) and anything else that might simplify the mixing
process. In this exercise, you’ll play some or all of the timeline and use the submix bus
faders to raise or lower the levels of the dialogue (DIAL), music (MUSIC), and background
sound effects (BG FX) during playback.
1 Press Shift-Z to fit all the timeline clips horizontally in the visible timeline.
2 Play the timeline from the beginning and listen to the current mix.
The mix should still sound pretty good. You haven’t actually changed any of the levels;
you’ve just altered the way that you will control them. You can continue to balance clip
level curves and individual faders as usual.
The BG FX tracks containing the medlab effects seem a little distracting when the
dialogue starts. Also, the Music sounds a bit low at the beginning. You can emphasize
the dialogue by lowering the BG FX submix fader after Philip says his first line and the
medlab is no longer in the shot.
3 Start playback, watch the scene, and move the Bus 5 BG FX fader down until the track
sounds less distracting (about -28 dB). Also experiment with the music levels in the
beginning and return them to their original levels during the dialogue.
4 When you’re finished, stop playback. Double-click the submix faders to reset them.
Now you know why submixes are a Mixer’s best friend. It is much easier to move one fader
that lowers multiple tracks than to manually lower multiple separate faders on-the-fly.

TIP You can control all multiple selected faders at the same time with the mouse
pointer by employing the Option/Alt modifier as you drag the selected faders.
Creating Additional Output Busses

Every audio signal in the timeline flows from the track to the main output. Whether you are
listening to speakers or headphones at your workstation, you are hearing the main output
every time you play your timeline.
The current timeline has one main output, three submix busses, and 10 individual tracks.
However, depending on the delivery requirements for your final project, you might need
to create additional main output busses in multiple formats. In fact, most professional
projects require several versions of your mix, such as stereo and 5.1 surround.
Furthermore, when dubbing a program into another language, you need to provide an
M&E (music and effects only) version of the mix that is devoid of all intelligible onscreen
dialogue so that it can be replaced by actors speaking their lines in another language.
You can create and assign main busses just as you created submix busses in the Bus
Format window and mixer.
In this exercise, you’ll create a 5.1 surround output bus and an M&E output bus based on
the current mix. Because the M&E mix will be identical to the Main 1 mix without dialogue,
you can simply duplicate Main 1 with all tracks and subs identically assigned and make any
changes to the copy. As for the 5.1 main output, you’ll create that one from scratch.
1 Continue working with the 11 Mixing Busses Start timeline. If you missed any of the
previous steps, open the 11 Additional Outputs Start timeline to catch up.
2 In the Fairlight page, choose Fairlight > Bus Format.

3 In the Bus Format window, select Main 1 and click the Duplicate button.
The duplicate bus appears below the other busses in the list with the name Main 1.
4 Click Add Bus for the 5.1 surround output bus.

The two new busses (Main 1 and Bus 7) appear in the Bus Format pane below the
previous busses.
5 Name the duplicate Main 1 bus M&E and Bus 7 bus 5.1.
Although the Main 1 output format is Stereo, you can change it to a different format at
any time or create multiple output busses for each of your delivery formats.
Because you probably are not doing this lesson with a surround sound setup, you can
create the 5.1 surround main with the understanding that you might not be able to
hear all the channels in the surround format.
6 Change the Format of the 5.1 bus to 5.1. Then, change the Color to purple to
distinguish it from the other stereo main output busses.
You now have seven busses to the right of the mixer and on the monitoring panel.
7 In the Bus Format window, click OK.
The busses appear in the monitoring panel and mixer in the order they were created from
left to right. Arranging busses by type is often ideal for easy access while mixing.
Rearranging Busses in the Tracks Index

Previously, you used the Tracks Index to show and hide track visibility, as well as reordering
and selecting tracks. With DaVinci Resole 18, you can drag busses in the Tracks Index to
reorder them just like tracks. You can even move busses up into the tracks area and vice
versa for custom track and fader mapping.
In this exercise, you’ll simply change the bus order by their function from left to right,
starting with the aux VERB bus followed by the submix busses and ending with the main
output busses.

1 Drag the left edge of the mixer to the left to expand it, if necessary, until you see all
seven busses. Notice the bus order in the mixer and monitoring panel.
2 Show the Tracks Index.
The busses are in the lower part of the Tracklist below the divider line.

NOTE In DaVinci Resolve 18, the Mixer Options menu (…) includes an option
for Single Mixer View that removes the divider line between busses and tracks
in the mixer and Tracks Index in the mixer. There you will also find an option to
Reset Bus Order.
3 In the Tracklist, drag the busses into the following order from top to bottom in the list:
— B2 VERB
— B3 DIAL
— B5 FX
— B4 MUSIC
— B1 Main 1
— B6 M&E
— B7 5.1
4 Hide the Tracks Index.
The new bus order is shown in the monitoring panel and mixer.

Assigning Tracks and
Busses to Multiple Outputs
Now, you’ll assign tracks and busses to the other output busses. Let’s start with the 5.1
bus. Later, you can set up the M&E bus on your own. The 5.1 output bus will have the same
track assignments as the Main 1 bus. However, one caveat is that you can only select tracks
or busses, but not at same time because they are divided into two sections of the mixer.
You could select and assign the tracks first, followed by the busses. Or you can try the new
Single Mixer View option, which removes the divider in the mixer and Tracks Index so the
tracks and busses can be selected and easily reordered as needed. Let’s try it. First, with
the default Dual Mixer View.
1 In the mixer, using the Bus Outputs as a guide, Command/Ctrl-select all the tracks and
busses assigned to Main 1.
Alas, it’s not possible to select both tracks and busses. Now let’s remove the divider.
2 Show the Tracks Index.
3 In the Mixer Options menu (…) choose Single Mixer View. Extend the mixer to show all
the busses if needed.

The divider between busses and tracks is gone. The seatbelt light is out, and you can
move tracks and busses freely about the index. You’ll see in the monitoring panel that
the busses are now right next to the tracks, without any empty track space between
them. You can also select multiple tracks and busses as needed. To return the divider,
you’ll need to choose Reset Bus Order in the Mixer Options menu.
4 In the mixer, using the Bus Outputs as a guide, select all the tracks and busses
assigned to Main 1.
5 Hold Option/Alt and click the A5 PFX track’s Bus Outputs Add (+) button and choose 5.1
from the pop-up menu.
Only the two selected tracks were assigned to 5.1. You will need to assign the busses
separately.
Assign 5.1 to all the selected busses at once using the Option/Alt shortcut. Deselect
the tracks and busses when finished.
Next, you’ll assign the tracks and busses to the M&E bus. The music and effects bus
should only be assigned tracks and busses that do not contain dialogue. That means
you’ll include everything that you assigned to the 5.1 output bus except the DIAL and
VERB busses.

6 Using the Main 1 and 5.1 Bus Outputs as a guide, assign A5 PFX, A9 SFX, Bus 4 MUSIC,
and Bus 5 BG FX to the M&E bus.
7 When you’re finished, hide the Tracks Index and condense the mixer if needed.
Your new 5.1 and M&E output busses are set up and ready for monitoring.
NOTE If you didn’t finish all the previous bussing exercises, feel free to open the
timeline 11 Mixing Busses Finished to catch up.
Monitoring Multiple Outputs and Busses

In the monitoring panel, the Control Room settings let you determine which outputs or
submixes are audible in the Control Room during your mix. In the Fixed Bus format, the
default is always the Main 1 output. In a Flex Bus format project, the first bus created
(Bus 1) defaults as the “main output.” To monitor a different main output or bus, you
choose from the pop-up menu below the Control Room meters.

In this exercise, you will change the Control Room monitoring to the 5.1 output. Play the
timeline once, and then return to the Main 1 output. Keep in mind that your Control Room
monitoring can be changed at any time.
1 Below the viewer, in the Control Room monitoring dropdown menu, choose 5.1.

2 Play the beginning of the timeline to monitor the 5.1 main output.
Notice that six meters are under the 5.1 main, but only the first three channels have
a signal. That’s because this isn’t a 5.1 surround mix, and no signal is going to the LFE
(Low Frequency Effects), left surround, or right surround channels.
No problem. Let’s change the MUSIC submix Format to 5.1 surround. Then, you’ll
re-assign the DRONE 1 track to the Music submix instead of BG FX and change the
pan settings for the DRONE 1 track to place it in the LFE, left surround, and right
surround positions.

3 In the mixer, delete the BG FX submix output bus on the A8 DRONE 1 track. Assign the
MUSIC submix bus instead. Choose Fairlight > Bus Format. In the Bus Format window,
change the MUSIC bus Format to 5.1. Click OK.
4 In the mixer, double-click the A8 DRONE 1 pan controls to open the Audio Pan window.
5 Start playback from the beginning. In the Audio Pan window, drag the blue pan
handle down to the rear center position, which will, in turn, place the two green stereo
channels in the left surround and right surround positions. As you drag the handle,
watch the meters on the M3 main output to see them reflect the audio panned to the
surround channels.
Now a signal is going to all but the LFE channel. To send a signal to the LFE channel,
you use the Boom controls in the Pan window.

6 In the lower-left corner of the Audio Pan window, click On to turn on the Boom controls.
The dial in the Boom controls is the track send that lets you determine how much of
the track’s signal is sent to the LFE.
7 Set the Boom send control to around 0.0. Then close the Pan window.
Notice that a blue LFE send bar is now present below the track’s Pan controls in the
mixer to indicate the amount of signal that is sent from the track to the LFE.
8 Start playback from the beginning to see all six surround channels in action in the
M3 meters.
If you continue watching the 5.1 meters, you’ll see that the third channel (Center) is
panned to that channel because of all the dialogue.
9 Continue playback. Change the Control Room Monitoring dropdown menu to a

different bus. Listen to each of the submixes.
10 Return the Control Room monitoring to Main 1. Stop Playback.

TIP When you’re finished, it’s a good idea to always reset the Control Room
monitoring to the Main output.
Setting up and patching multiple mains is easy once you understand how to create and
assign busses in Resolve.
Splitting the Main Output Bus to Another Bus

Delivery requirements can range anywhere from a simple stereo mix to a series of stereo,
surround, and immersive format stems and mixes. One common requirement is to deliver
a separate mix with specific true peak value such as -10 dBTP (decibels true peak). In this
exercise, you route the signal from the Stereo Out to the adjacent -10 dBTP bus. Then,
you’ll apply a Limiter plug-in to that bus to limit the signal accordingly.
For this exercise, you’ll switch projects and work with the Girl on Wave trailer project from
Lesson 1.
1 Choose File > Save Project to save the current project.
2 Press Shift-1 to open the Project Manager.
3 In the Project Manager, open the project Lesson 01 build soundtrack.
4 In the Lesson 01 build soundtrack project, open the timeline 5 GOW Trailer to Render.
Then expand the mixer to show all the tracks and busses.
The timeline opens with five busses showing in the mixer and monitoring panel. These
busses include DX, FX, MX, Stereo Out, and -10 dBTP.

NOTE Short acronyms like DX, FX, and MX for Dialog, Sound Effects, and
Music, respectively, are often used to simplify and standardize the naming of
submixes and mix stems. There are many workflows and signal flow options for
routing tracks to busses, busses to busses, and so on. The important thing is
that the final output meets your specific delivery standards. How you get there
is up to you.
5 Play the timeline from the beginning and watch the meters as you listen to
the playback.
What a difference a little signal routing can achieve. In this case, there is a clear
cascading signal routing of all like tracks assigned to submix busses, which in turn are
assigned to the Stereo Out output. Now let’s split the Stereo output to the -10 dBTP bus.
6 In the mixer, click the Bus Outputs Add button (+) in the Stereo Out channel strip and
choose the -10 dBTP bus.
7 Start playback and watch the Stereo Out and -10 dBTP bus meters to see that they
have identical levels. Stop playback.
Next, you’ll add the FairlightFX Limiter plug-in to the -10 dBTP bus.

8 Click the Add Effects (+) button on the Bus5 -10 dBTP channel strip and choose
Dynamics > Fairlight FX > Limiter from the Effects pop-up. In the Limiter controls
window, set the Limit value to -10.

9 Close the Limiter controls window. Start playback and watch the meters to compare
the Stereo Out and -10 dBTP bus levels.
Notice that the levels on the -10 dBTP never exceed the -10 dB value set by the
limiter plug-in.
Aux Verb on the FX Please!

To finish off this multi-stop bus tour, you now get to apply your bussing skills to add
an auxiliary reverb bus to the GOW Trailer. Specifically, the client has requested a wet
Cathedral-like reverb on the sound effects tracks. This sounds like the job for an AUX VERB
bus. Just like the Aux bus you created in the Hyperlight project, you start by creating a
bus. Once you create the bus, you’ll find the sends in the mixer above the Pan controls.
Although this is a do-it-yourself exercise, you’ll find a guide list below that you can follow if
needed. If you’re feeling confident or want to explore the bussing on your own—go for it.

For those who need some breadcrumbs to follow, here you go:
— In the Bus Format window, create a new Stereo bus and name it VERB.
— In the mixer’s Bus Sends controls, send each of the FX tracks to the VERB bus.
— Once you route a track to the VERB bus, hover over the VERB send to see the controls
and click the Controls button to open the Send controls.
— In the Bus Sends controls for each track, turn ON the send and set the Send Level to 0.
— Add the Fairlight FX Reverb plug-in to the Bus6 VERB bus.
— Set the Reverb plug-in to the Cathedral preset and close the controls.
— Route the VERB bus to the Stereo Out bus.
— Adjust the VERB bus fader as needed to control the amount of Reverb applied to
the effects.
Congratulations! You have worked with auxiliary, submix, and output busses in both Fixed
Bus and Flex Bus timelines, and you are ready to apply those skills to your own projects!

Lesson Review
1 What are the two bus formats available in DaVinci Resolve 18?
a) Community and Local
b) Fixed Bus and Flex Bus
c) VW and BMW
d) SubMain and AuxCart
2 What type of bus can you use to apply one plug-in, such as Reverb, to any track in
the timeline?
a) Main
b) Effects
c) Sub
d) Aux
3 Where do you access the Bus Format and Bus Assign windows?
a) Mixer
b) Monitoring panel
c) Fairlight menu
d) Auxiliary controls
4 True or false? New DaVinci Resolve 18 projects open in the default Flex Bus format.
5 Is it possible to change a project’s bus format from Flex Bus to Fixed bus?
a) Yes, if the project is empty.
b) Yes, you can change a project’s bus format at any time.
c) No, once a project is created, the bus format is set.
Lesson Review 535

Answers
1 b
2 d
3 c
4 True
5 a

Lesson 12
Mixing with
Automation
Once you have finished premixing Time

track levels, sweetening the sound This lesson takes approximately
with EQ and dynamics, and setting up 20 minutes to complete.
busses to control signal flow, it’s time Goals

to fine-tune the mix with automation.
Automating the changes to your faders
Exploring Clip vs.
and other parameters while you work
Track Automation 539
allows you to free up your hands and
focus on each pass of the mix. The
Working with Bus Tracks
final master mix must sound great and
in the Timeline 563
meet delivery standards for loudness.
Fortunately, the Fairlight page includes
Moving a Premixed Timeline
everything you need to make sure that
into a Master Timeline 570
the levels are on target to deliver a
Lesson Review 575
cinema-quality soundtrack!
In this lesson, you’ll explore some of

Fairlight’s automation tools to record
dynamic level changes over time.
Along the way, you’ll also automate
panning and plug-in controls; copy,
paste, and edit an automation curve
in the timeline; and more.
Mixing with the Fairlight Desktop Console
The Fairlight Desktop Console is designed to work alongside your mouse and keyboard to
give you professional mixing controls for the Fairlight page. Features like touch-sensitive
faders and knobs, along with a full automation toolset, make it easier than ever to perform
complex mixing and sweetening workflows.
TIP Re-recording mixers working with large mixing consoles are typically moving
hardware faders during playback and can maneuver their hands around the
controls like a keyboardist playing a church organ. When you’re working in a
software-only environment, you must do the best you can using a mouse or
track pad. You can always record automation to your tracks or submix busses to
help simplify the final mix. Also, numerous hardware mixing consoles, including
the Fairlight Desktop Console and customizable Fairlight Studio Consoles, are
compatible with DaVinci Resolve and its Fairlight page.

In this exercise, you will resume working with the Hyperlight Audio Post project that you
have been premixing and sweetening in the previous lessons. Since Lesson 11 ended with
you working on the GOW Trailer project, you probably need to head back to the Project
Manager and open the Hyperlight project.
1 Open DaVinci Resolve, if necessary.
2 In the Project Manager, double-click your initialized Hyperlight Audio Post project
to open it.
The project opens in the Fairlight page with the last timeline you were working on
in this project. For this lesson, you will continue with a version of the timeline that
includes all the pre-mixing and bussing applied.
3 Open the timeline 12 Submix and Automation Start.
For subsequent exercises, you’ll simply be instructed to open a specific timeline.
538 Lesson 12 Mixing with Automation

Exploring Clip vs. Track Automation
DaVinci Resolve 18.1 included a major update to the automation toolset and workflows
in the Fairlight page. With this update, automation has never been easier and can be
performed with standard tools.
The primary difference between clip automation and track automation is where you place
the keyframes. That’s right: keyframes are used for automation, so you’ve already automated
the clip gain levels on numerous clips in earlier lessons. With DaVinci Resolve’s new vector-
based track automation, you can now apply keyframes to track levels and other parameters
with the same tools and shortcuts that you used for adding keyframes to the clip gain line.
In this exercise, you’ll step through some of the similarities and differences between clip and
track automation in the Fairlight page. Let’s start with a quick refresher on clip keyframes
using the A8 DRONE 1 track as an example. Hide the mixer and monitoring panel (meters).
1 In the timeline, solo the A8 DRONE 1 track. Zoom and resize the track as needed until
you can clearly see the entire first clip.
2 Press A, for Pointer mode, to work with the default selection tool (arrow).
3 On the A8 track, use Option/Alt-click to add five randomly placed keyframes on the clip
gain line. Then drag the keyframes up or down so they are no longer in a straight line.

4 Press R for Range mode. Option/Alt-click the gain line to add another keyframe. Drag
a range that includes some of the keyframes. Drag upward on the clip gain line within
the range to increase the relative level of the line and the keyframes within the range.
5 Clear the range. Click the lower half of the clip to select the entire clip. With the clip
selected, drag the gain line up or down to adjust the relative level of the keyframes on
the clip gain line.
Now that you have added and manipulated keyframes, let’s delete them.
6 Click to select the first keyframe on the clip. Shift-click the last keyframe to select them
all. Press Delete.
For this last clip keyframe refresher, you’ll use the Focus mode multi-tool.

7 In the timeline toolbar, click the Focus Mode button to switch the pointer to the Focus
mode multi-tool.
8 With the multi-tool, Option/Alt-click to add several keyframes. Move them up or down
randomly. Drag a range around the keyframes and raise the gain line within the range.
Double-click the clip or click the lower half of the clip outside of the range to select the
entire clip. Drag the clip gain line for the selected clip to trim the level. Deselect the clip
and drag a range that includes some of the first and second clips. Drag the gain line
within the selection of the multi-clip range. Clear the range. Keep the keyframes.
NOTE When working with clip keyframes, all three Fairlight editing modes offer the
same keyframe selection and deletion options. You can click to select one keyframe
at a time, Command/Ctrl-click to select additional keyframes, or Shift-click to select
continuous keyframes. To delete keyframes, you can Command-Option-click
(macOS) or Ctrl-Alt-click (Windows) to delete them one at a time, or press Delete to
remove multiple selected keyframes.
Next, you’ll look at track level automation and how you can use the standard tools to
automate track levels.
Switching Between Clip Editing View

and Track Automation View
With DaVinci Resolve 18, you can now switch between two different track views while
working in the timeline. Clip editing view is the default view for each track in the timeline.
In fact, clip editing view is what you see in the timeline right now, and it’s what you’ve been
using throughout the exercises in this book so far. As the name suggests, clip editing
view focuses on clip selection and editing as well as keyframes applied to the clip gain
line. Track automation view, on the other hand, hides the clip gain line and instead has
a line that represents the value curve of a specific track-based parameter such as Fader
Level. To switch between clip editing view and track automation view, you simply toggle
automation on and choose a parameter from the track’s Automation dropdown menu. To

return a track to clip editing view, choose None from the Automation dropdown menu.
Let’s try it. Along the way, you’ll also review some tools and techniques that you worked
with in earlier lessons.
1 In the timeline toolbar, click the Toggle Automation button to turn on Automation.
The button turns red when toggled on.
2 On the A8 DRONE 1 track header, choose Fader Level from the Automation
dropdown menu.
Now the track displays track automation view, which includes a curve (horizontal line)
for the track’s current automation parameter and darkened clips to make it easier to
see the automation curve while writing and editing track automation.

3 Press A for Pointer mode. Drag the Fader Level curve up or down to change the level of
the entire track.
Changes to the Fader Level also show in the Fader Level track level field and mixer.
4 Show the mixer. Drag the Fader Level curve on the A8 track up and down to change
the value. Watch the A8 fader in the mixer and the Fader Level field on the track
header while you change the level.
As you can see, there is a direct connection between the Fader Level curve on the
track and the corresponding fader in the mixer. All the automation curves have
corresponding controls in the mixer. Now let’s reset the Fader Level curve. How? You
can reset the clip gain line with a double-click on the line. But that does not work for
track automation. Instead, to reset an automation curve to the default value, you
double-click the parameter control in the mixer—in this case, the fader.
5 Double-click the A8 DRONE 1 Fader in the mixer to reset the Fader Level. Hide
the mixer.
NOTE Double-clicking a parameter control to reset the value only resets the
automation curve if there are no automation keyframes on the curve.

6 In the A8 track header, choose None in the Automation dropdown menu to return the
track to the clip editing view.
Now the clip gain keyframes are back, right where you left them. Let’s delete the clip
gain keyframes and reset the clip levels on all the clips in the DRONE track. The easiest
way to reset the clip levels is to either use Remove Attributes from the right-click
contextual menu or select the clips and reset the Volume in the Inspector. Let’s use the
second method.
7 Select the A8 track header. Press Command-A (macOS) or Ctrl-A (Windows) to select all
the clips in the selected track.
8 Show the Inspector. Click the Volume Reset button.
The clip levels have been reset for all the clips in the A8 track. Unfortunately, now all
the clip levels in the track are too high for the mix. You’ll need to lower the clip levels to
a comfortable level for the mix, and then use the fader during the mix to make minor
adjustments to the overall track level. This time let’s use a different method to select
and adjust the levels.

9 Switch to the Focus mode multi-tool. Double-click the first clip in the A8 track to select
it, and then Shift-select the lower half of the last clip to select all the clips in the track.
Since the clips are within a selected range, you can adjust all of them all at once by
doing one of the following: drag the clip gain line within the range or use the shortcuts
available in the Clip > Audio menu.
10 Hide the Inspector. Lower the clip gain level for the clips in the A8 track to -7.00 or -8.00.
You also need to lower the fader level for the A18 track. For this, you could either use
the fader in the mixer or simply drag the Fader Level field in the track header up or
down to raise or lower the level. Let’s use the Fader Level field as a reminder that this
handy field can also be used to adjust the fader level when needed.
11 In the A8 track header, drag the Fader Level field to set the level to -15.00.
Excellent work on the clip versus track view level adjustment and reset warmup. Next, you’ll
experiment with Fader Level keyframes using standard tools.
Adding and Editing Track Automation

with Standard Tools
A major improvement to track automation on the Fairlight page is the new vector-based
keyframes. Vectoring means that any two keyframes can represent a perfectly smooth
change between those two points. Additionally, you can now use standard tools to draw
the automation you want for the overall track. In this exercise, you’ll repeat many of the
steps that you followed earlier to add keyframes to the clip gain line in clip editing view. This
time, you’ll be working with keyframes on the Fader Level curve in track automation view.

1 Switch the A8 track to track automation view and show the Fader Level curve.
2 Show the mixer. Press A for the Pointer mode.
3 Option/Alt-click the Fader Level curve to add a keyframe.
Three things happened when you added the first keyframe to the curve:
— A small white keyframe appeared on the curve where you created it.
— The curve turned green to indicate that automation has been written to the curve.
— The fader turned green to indicate that automation has been written to
that parameter.
4 On the A8 track, add two more keyframes to the Fader Level curve. Then drag the
middle keyframe up or down so that it’s no longer in a straight line.
5 Hide the mixer.
6 Drag upward on the middle of the three keyframes. Notice the tooltip that shows the
new level and the amount of change while you drag the keyframe.

7 Delete the middle keyframe with the shortcut Command-Option-click (macOS) or Ctrl-
Alt-click (Windows).
Next, you’ll try using the Focus mode multi-tool, which offers range selection options
as well as the unique ability to delete keyframes within a range.
8 With the Focus mode multi-tool, add a keyframe to the Fader Level curve. Drag the
middle keyframe downward. Drag across at least two keyframes. Drag the Fader Level
curve within the range upward. Drag a new range that includes all the keyframes on
the A8 track. Drag the curve up or down to trim the level and all keyframes relative to
the curve.
NOTE The new and improved automation curves offer visual feedback of the
curve’s previous position as you make changes to the levels. The actual curve
remains green, while a gray version of the curve remains as a placeholder to
indicate the previous position until the curve is released in its new position.

9 Drag a range to select all the keyframes on the A8 Fader Level curve. Press Delete.
The automation curve is reset and returns to the default gray color to indicate that no
automation keyframes have been written to this track parameter.
Now that you have experimented with drawing, trimming, and deleting a random
automation curve on a track using standard tools, let’s move on to Fairlight’s powerful
automation toolset that lets you write and trim automation curves during playback.
Automating Track Changes

Adjusting faders and other controls during a mix is part of your job. You could try making
all the changes on-the-fly during your final mix or alternatively record the parameter
changes as automation. Recording automation data to a track curve is also referred to
as writing automation. In this exercise, you’ll use Resolve’s automation controls on the
Fairlight page to record volume changes to the medlab tracks over time. You could record
automation using either the submix fader or the A6 MEDLAB 1 track fader to achieve the
same results. However, recording automation to the track fader gives you the added bonus
of a visible automation curve associated with clips in the timeline.
Fairlight’s automation toolset now includes independent controls to enable automation

and expose global automation controls. You can show or hide the automation control
toolbar as needed, without affecting whether automation is on or off.

You’ll find the Toggle Automation and Automation Controls buttons at the top of the
Fairlight page, next to the transport controls.
1 Click the Automation Controls button to open the automation toolbar.
The automation toolbar includes buttons that control every available option for setting
up and recording automation for your mix. The buttons are organized in groups from
left to right.
You can record automation data in either Write or Trim mode. Write mode records
absolute changes to controls, whereas Trim mode records relative changes that
increase or decrease levels that are already recorded.
The Touch mode settings determine what happens when you begin automation.
When Touch mode is turned off, no automation is recorded. Touch mode includes
three automation recording modes:
— Latch mode begins recording as soon as you touch a control that is enabled for
automation and continues to record automation after you release the control.
— Snap mode begins recording automation when you touch a control and stops
recording when you release the control. Additionally, once you release the control
and automation stops recording, the physical control glides back to the starting
value or position where it was at the start of the automation recording. For
example, if you are recording fader automation with a starting position of -12 dB in
Snap mode, you can record new fader automation as long as you are holding the
fader. Once you release the fader, the automation recording stops and the fader
glides back to the -12 dB position. The default glide time is 250 ms (milliseconds)
and can be changed in the Fairlight User Preferences tab.

— Fader Snap mode offers a combination of Snap and Latch mode in that the faders
work in Snap mode while all other controls are in Latch mode.
The On Stop controls determine what happens when you release the control that you
are recording:
— Event maintains the most recently recorded automation value and overwrites
other previous levels for that parameter until the playhead reaches the start of the
next recorded data on the track.
— Hold maintains the most recently recorded value and deletes all previously
recorded data for the rest of the track.
— Return creates a ramp from the automation value you just recorded to the
previous values on that track.
The Enables buttons are self-explanatory and let you enable or disable different
controls for recording automation.
The Preview switch toggles Preview mode on or off. Preview is an additional mix
automation workflow that frees the faders (and other controls) from automation
control and lets you move them while you experiment with different levels and settings
until you are ready to write or trim new automation data.
Let’s record automation to the Fader Level curve for the A6 MEDLAB 1 track so the
medlab effects are more prominent at the beginning of the scene and then gradually
diminish when the medlab is no longer visible onscreen. The medlab sound effects are
a reminder for the audience that the other Philip is nearby, so keep the medlab audible
but not overpowering. Rather than using specific numbers and levels to set here, trust
your ears and your own judgement to decide when to dip the medlab effects and
when they should be more prominent in the mix.
TIP Before recording automation, it’s always a good idea to set the initial track
levels and practice changing levels on-the-fly.

2 Show the monitoring panel, if necessary, and make sure the control room monitoring
is set to Main 1.
3 Press A for Pointer mode. In the timeline, select the A6 MEDLAB 1 track to select both
linked MEDLAB tracks.
4 Zoom vertically to increase the height of the selected tracks.
With the larger track height, you can more clearly see the Automation Arm button and
Automation dropdown menu in the track header.
At the moment, the track is still in clip editing view. To set track levels and record track
automation, you’ll need to change the track to track automation view.
5 In the A6 track header, choose Fader Level from the Automation dropdown menu.
Let’s set the initial level for the medlab effects. First, you’ll need to switch the track to
the track automation curve view.

6 Start playback from the beginning of the scene and set the A6 track level for the
medlab effects. If you aren’t sure of the level, try around -10.
Notice the current fader position so that you can return the fader to that position after
your practice run.
7 Make sure that the touch automation controls are off. (The Touch mode Off button
will be red.)
8 Start playback from the beginning of the scene, and in the channel strip, adjust the A6
fader throughout the scene. Experiment with different levels until you find values that
work best for the highest and lowest levels.
9 Move the playhead to the beginning of the track and set the A6 fader to the starting
level (around -10).
10 In the Touch controls, click the Latch button. In the Enables section, click the Fader
button. Also, ensure that automation is in Write mode and On Stop is set to Hold.

11 Click the A6 fader once.
The fader turns red to indicate that it is enabled for automation recording. You’ll
see that the Automation Arm button on the track header and the Fader Level curve
also turn red.
12 In the A6 track, in the automation curve pop-up menu, choose Fader Level so you can
see the automation curve as you record automation.

13 Start playback from the beginning and lower the fader just as you practiced in step 8.
When you are finished, stop playback, and release the fader.
Notice that when you stop recording, the fader turns green to indicate that the control
is automated. Also, you’ll see the green fader level automation curve on the A6 track.
14 Set the Touch mode to off.
TIP When you’re working with automation, it’s a good idea to turn off
the Touch mode when you aren’t actively recording. Otherwise, you could
accidentally record or overwrite automation during playback. Also, you can click
the Toggle Automation button to the right of the transport controls to disable
or enable all automation applied to a timeline.
15 Play the beginning of the scene and watch the A6 fader as it moves automatically
to follow the recorded automation.
Once you have recorded automation, you can write new automation over the original
or edit the automation curve using standard tools like the Focus mode multi-tool.
16 In the timeline toolbar, click the Focus Mode button.

17 Using the multi-tool, click the lower half of the clip to create a range equal to the length
of the clip. Drag the Fader Level curve downward to decrease the level by 1 to 3 dB.
View the tooltip to see the amount of change.
Feel free to make additional edits to the Fader Level curve.
18 Clear the range. Press A or click the Focus Mode button to return to the default
arrow tool.
Now that you have seen how easy it is to automate fader levels on a track, let’s automate
some other parameters.
Automating Pan Controls

Automation goes far beyond adjusting volume levels. In the next set of exercises, you’ll
take automation to the next level by automating the panning of the MEDLAB tracks at the
beginning of the scene to follow the respirator mask onscreen.
Just like before, you’ll be able to see the associated automation curve for Pan in the
timeline track.
NOTE If you did not complete all the previous steps, feel free to open the timeline
12 More Automation Start.

1 In the A6 MEDLAB 1 track header, change the Automation dropdown menu from Fader
Level to L/R Pan.
2 In the mixer, double-click the A6 Pan control to open the Pan window.
Automation can be recorded with or without the playhead moving. In this case, let’s
record the panning during playback. First, let’s watch the beginning of the scene.
3 Play the scene from the beginning and pay close attention to Medlab-Philip’s position
when he is onscreen, and the direction of the other character’s eyelines when they are
looking his direction when he is not onscreen.
Your goal is to automate the panning to simulate the movement of Medlab-Phillip’s

position onscreen. Once the scene evolves to Philip and Emiliana talking back and
forth without seeing Medlab-Philip in the background, you can resume the Center pan
position for the medlab sounds for the rest of the scene.

To expand your automation horizons a bit in this exercise, this time you will set the On
Stop mode to Event. First, you’ll record the center position at the point where you want
the center panning position to remain for the rest of the scene. Then, you’ll go back to
the beginning of the scene and record the pan movement for the early part of the scene.
4 In the Automation Toolbar Enables section, disable the Fader button and enable the Pan
button. Then, enable Event in the On Stop controls and Snap for the Touch controls.
5 Move the playhead to the red timeline marker. This is where you want the panning
to be in the center position and remain there for the rest of the scene. To record this
automaton keyframe, or Event, you can use the pointer and set a keyframe.
6 Make sure the panner is set to the center position. Then, Option/Alt-click the L/R Pan
automation curve on the A6 track at the playhead position to set a keyframe.
If you look at the Pan controls and the position of the panner you’ll see that the center
position involves both the Left/Right and Front/Back. Therefore, you’ll also need to set
an automation event value for the Front/Back as well.
7 In the A6 MEDLAB 1 track header, change the Automation dropdown menu from L/R
Pan to F/B Pan.
8 Add a keyframe on the F/B Pan automation curve on the A6 track at the playhead
position. Change the Automation dropdown menu back to L/R Pan.
NOTE The Pencil tool is great for setting a specific automation value or even
drawing a new curve. If you need to record more than one parameter at a time,
you can also use the controls in the corresponding Pan window.

9 Move the playhead to the first frame of the timeline and click the Automation Write
button on the A6 track header.
All the controls on the panner turn red to indicate that any changes will be recorded as
automation data. You’ll also notice that the L/R pan curve is orange. When automation
is set to Event on stop, the new automation data will only be recorded from the
playhead position to the next event (keyframe). Also, this time, when you release the
control it will snap (glide) back to the existing value on the curve, which in this case is
the center position.
10 Move the panner to the front right position about one gridline from the right corner
(approximately 75R, 100F).
The red part of the graph shows the new recorded panning position and where it will
end up when it gets to the next event. While recording automation, you’ll see a red
graph representing the new curve as it is recorded and a green graph representing
the existing curve.

11 Start playback and move the panner toward the left to follow the action onscreen.
Once Medlab-Philip is offscreen, move the panner to -75L and keep it there until
Philip crosses the room to talk to Emiliana. Release the panner when you get to the
red marker. Then stop playback. Stop playback with the Spacebar any time before the
red marker.
When you stop recording, the graph turns green again.
12 If necessary, press A to return to the default Selection tool. Then play the beginning of
the scene to see and hear your Pan automation. When finished, close the Pan window.
NOTE If don’t like your automation and would like to try again, simply choose
Edit > Undo and then repeat the previous steps to record again. To clear all
automation on a curve, use the multi-tool to set a range around the keyframes,
and then press Delete.
Next, you’ll automate the Reverb on the VERB Aux bus.

Automating Plug-Ins
For a little added drama and realism to accentuate the distance between Medlab-Philip
and his beeping monitor during Philip and Emiliana’s conversation, let’s add an Echo plug-
in to the medlab tracks and automate the Dry/Wet control on-the-fly during playback.
When the camera is near Medlab-Philip, the Echo plug-in will be dry, without echo. When
the camera is far from the medlab and the medical equipment, you will increase the
wetness of the effect to exploit the distance between them.
Let’s start by adding an Echo plug-in to the A6 track in the mixer.
1 In the mixer, A6 channel strip, click the Add Effect (+) button and choose Delay >
FairlightFX > Echo to add the Echo plug-in to the track.
2 In the Echo - MEDLAB 1 window, change the Default preset to Large Hall.
Before automating the Dry/Wet control on the plug-in window, let’s hear how it sounds
dry and at around 30% wet.
4 In the Echo window, Output controls, drag the Dry/Wet control all the way to the left (0)
for a dry signal, without any Echo effect applied.
5 Start playback and change the Dry/Wet control from Dry (0%) when the camera is in
the medlab near Medlab-Philip to around 20–30% when the camera is near Philip and
Emiliana across the room away from the beeping medlab machines. Anytime Medlab-
Philip is in the foreground onscreen, the Echo effect should be dry. Once the scene
settles at the table with Emiliana and Philip (red marker), you are finished.
Practice a few times. When you’re ready to record automation, move on to the
next step.
6 In the A6 MEDLAB 1 track header, in the Automation dropdown menu, choose

Plugins > Echo > Dry/Wet to show that curve in the track.

7 In the Automation toolbar, enable Plugins and set Touch mode to Latch and On
Stop to Hold.
8 Move the playhead to the beginning of the timeline. If Necessary, turn on the
Automation Arm button in the upper-right corner of the Plugin window. Then, turn on
the Automation Arm button on the A6 MEDLAB 1 track.
All the controls in the Echo window turn red to show that they are armed for recording
automation data.
9 Drag the Ouput Dry/Wet knob to the Dry position (0%).
10 Start playback and record the changes to the Dry/Wet parameter. When you finish
(before the red marker), release the knob and press the Spacebar.
11 Close the Echo window and set the Touch mode to Off. Then deselect the Pan and
Plugin enable buttons.
12 Press Command-F (macOS) or Ctrl-F (Windows) for full-screen Cinema Viewer mode.
Play the beginning of the scene to hear your Volume, Pan, and Plugin automation in
context. When you are finished, press Escape (Esc) to exit Cinema Viewer mode. If you
didn’t complete all the automation steps, and you’d like to hear the finished track, open
the timeline 12 More Automation Finished.
Excellent work! This is just scratching the surface of what you can do with automation to
bring a soundtrack to life. Hopefully, you will now feel confident enough to try it on your own.

NOTE You can also turn on Preview mode in the Automation toolbar, which lets
you audition changes to automated parameters without writing new data or
overwriting existing automation data.
Beware of Ear Fatigue!

Ear fatigue is a phenomenon that listeners experience after prolonged exposure to
constant audio stimulus. Common symptoms include ear discomfort, an inability to focus
or distinguish between similar sounds, and tiredness.
As you know, your ears are a vital part of your complex auditory system. They are always
working and sending information to your brain to process. Our brains, in turn, attempt to
tune out unnecessary background noises while consciously processing priority sounds
such as human speech. When you focus attention on a specific sound, you are consciously
overriding your brain’s subconscious sound dampening and sifting processes.
Now imagine sitting in a theater, watching loud action movies and focusing on every
element of the soundtrack for 8 to 10 hours a day, 5 days a week. Such is the life of a
Hollywood re-recording mixer. Audio pros learn to recognize ear fatigue and know when
they need to step away for a bit. In the early days of sound mixing, the necessity to change
film reels created built-in breaks throughout the day. However, with the advent of digital
audio and high-end mixing stages, prolonged and sustained exposure to loud audio is a
daily occurrence. Whether you are a seasoned pro or a headphone-wearing student in a
classroom, when you notice your mind drifting away from your work, feel uncomfortable
pressure in your ears, or are suddenly tired—take a break! If you are an audio post
supervisor, film producer, or medical professional who doesn’t believe in the ear fatigue
phenomenon, feel free to spend a day in a theater watching 8 hours of action films non-
stop or sit near the mixing console during an 8-hour rock concert.

Working with Bus Tracks
in the Timeline
With DaVinci Resolve 18, you can view any of your busses as tracks in the timeline. Bus
tracks let you record, edit, and view automation curves for busses just like standard tracks.
In fact, you show and hide bus tracks, just like standard tracks, in the Tracks Index. This
feature is available only while the Automation tools are showing.
In this exercise, you’ll open a different version of this mix with fader automation already
applied to some of the busses.
1 Open the timeline, 12 Bus Tracks Example.
2 Hide the media pool if showing.
3 Show the Tracks Index to see all the timeline tracks in order from top to bottom. In this
case, all tracks are visible in the Tracklist.
4 In the timeline, if necessary, click the Automation Controls button to show the
Automation toolbar.
With the Automation toolbar showing, you’ll also see all the busses marked visible in
the Tracklist as tracks in the timeline.
Working with Bus Tracks in the Timeline 563

Here you can see that the Main 1, MUSIC, and BG FX busses have their visibility icons
enabled and are therefore showing in the timeline.
5 In the timeline, scroll down to see the three bus tracks at the bottom of the timeline
starting with the M1 Main 1.
Notice that the B5 MUSIC and B6 BG FX submix bus tracks show automation curves for the
EQ Band3 Gain. This type of EQ automation is called EQ carving and is common for dipping
or carving the midrange EQ frequencies in music and background tracks that compete
with important dialogue frequencies.
Copying and Pasting Automation

If multiple tracks or bus tracks need the same automation, you can copy and paste
automation data from one track to another via the Fairlight Automation menu. Or, simply
use the Focus mode multi-tool to select a curve range on one track, and then copy and
paste on another selected track.
In this exercise, you’ll copy the EQ automation curve from the B5 bus track and paste
it on the B6 bus track. To copy and paste automation, you first need to set a range in
the timeline.
1 With the Focus mode multi-tool, drag a range from the first frame to the last. In the
Automation toolbar, enable EQ.

2 Choose Fairlight > Automation > Copy or press Command-C (macOS) or
Ctrl-C (Windows).
3 Select the B6 BG FX bus track.
4 Choose Fairlight > Automation > Paste or use the shortcut Command-V (macOS) or
Ctrl-V (Windows).
The B6 BG FX bus track now has the same EQ Band3 Gain automation curve as the B5
MUSIC bus track.
Moving Automation with Clips

DaVinci Resolve 18 includes Automation Follows Edit, which adds clip awareness to the
automation data. When toggled on, automation data is recorded to the clips as well as the
track. This is incredibly important if you need to move or trim clips after you’ve recorded
automation. In this example, you’ll toggle on the Automation Follows Edit button and then
cut and move all the timeline contents 10 seconds later to accommodate a title. This is
a common workflow and an excellent opportunity to refresh some of your other new
Fairlight skills.

Keep in mind that if you’re moving the audio clips, you also need to move the video clips.
To do that, you’ll need to show the video tracks in the timeline.
1 Press A for Pointer mode. Hide the Index. Clear the play range, if necessary. In the
Timeline View Options menu, click the Video tracks icon.
2 In the timeline toolbar, locate the Automation Follows Edit button. It should already be
on by default. You can also go to the Fairlight > Automation menu to see if the Follows
Edit option is checked.
3 In the Automation toolbar, enable Fader, Pan, and Plugins.
4 Increase the vertical zoom in the timeline until you can see all the visible tracks
and busses.
Next, you’ll need to select all the clips.

5 Move the playhead to the beginning of the timeline. Press Command-A (macOS) or
Ctrl-A (Windows) to select all the clips in the timeline.
6 Press Command-X (macOS) or Ctrl-X (Windows) to cut the selected clips and their
automation data.
All that’s left to do is move the playhead 10 seconds forward and paste.

7 Type +10. (plus symbol followed by 10 and a period, which will enter +10:00 in the
Timecode field).
8 Press Enter or Return to execute the timecode playhead move. Press Command-V
(macOS) or Ctrl-V (Windows) to paste the selected clips based on the new
playhead position.
The playhead and copied clips move 10 seconds forward in the timeline. Notice that
the visible automation curve on the Medlab 1 track moved along with the clips.
9 Play the timeline from the beginning of the clips and listen to the Medlab 1 track Pan
and Echo automation to see if it is still in sync with the clips.
Perfection! All the automation moved along with the clips.
Showing the Loudness History

Curves in the Main 1 Bus Track
If you’re working with DaVinci Resolve 18, you can show loudness curves in the Main 1 bus
track so that you can easily spot exactly where loudness issues occur and fix them.
1 Move the playhead to the first frame of the timeline. Then, if necessary, show the
Automation controls in the timeline and enable visibility for the MI Main 1 bus track in
the Tracklist.

2 In the timeline, increase the height of the M1 Main 1 bus track until you see the
Loudness History controls in the track header.
3 Switch on the Loudness History controls to see the Loudness history graph in the
timeline. Then check the Integrated, Momentary, and Short Term options to see all
three loudness metering graphs.
To see the Loudness history in the graph, you must start the Loudness meters.
4 In the monitoring panel, click the Loudness meters Options menu and choose a
loudness metering standard for your region. If unsure, choose BS.1770-4, which is the
most current loudness metering used worldwide that employs algorithms to measure
audio program loudness and true-peak audio levels.
5 On the Loudness meters, click Reset and Start.
6 Start playback. The loudness metering colors and values are drawn in the graph
as you play.
These three Loudness curves follow the same color indicators as the loudness
meters. If the program level exceeds the -23 LKFS loudness standard, that part of the
graph shows in red along with the meters. If the loudness levels are within tolerance
(+/- 2 dBFS), the graph and the meters will display yellow.

NOTE The Loudness History graph shows the visual history of the program
loudness in the timeline. You cannot edit the loudness history curves. If there
is an issue with the loudness levels, you must fix the volume levels in the tracks
and busses using standard mixing and automation workflows.
7 When you’re finished looking at the Loudness History graph, hide the Tracks Index,
Video Tracks in the timeline options menu and Automation controls in the timeline.
Now that you know how to show and use timeline bus tracks and the Loudness History
graph in DaVinci Resolve, you can employ these powerful mixing and finishing tools in your
own projects.
Moving a Premixed Timeline

into a Master Timeline
The last automation technique that you’ll explore in this lesson involves using nested
timelines to move pre-mixed timelines into a master timeline or template. Often, on
large shows there will be separate dialogue, sound effects, and music mixers working on
separate mixes for their designated elements. These pre-mixes include clip keyframes,
plug-ins, track automation, and bussing specific to that timeline, such as for dialogue.
To combine the elements, you can use nested timelines to move the entire timeline into a

master timeline, and then decompose. You used this technique once in Lesson 3 to move
the edited voiceover timeline into the primary Hyperlight timeline. This time, you’ll move a
simple dialogue pre-mixed timeline complete with automation and a dialogue-specific bus
to a master timeline and then decompose to add it to the mix in progress.
1 Open the 12 Dialogue Mix timeline. Then open the Bus Format window. Make sure that
the Automation is toggled on as well.
As you can see, this timeline includes all the dialogue editing, sweetening, and
mixing that you’ve done so far. It also includes a single mono output bus named
DX (dialogue mix).
2 Open the 12 Master Mix add Dialogue timeline.

This timeline contains all the sound effects and music tracks and busses. To combine
the two, you’ll add the 12 Dialogue Mix timeline to the empty A1 track in this timeline.
Notice that the busses include FX (effects mix) and MX (music mix). You’ll add the DX
(dialogue mix) bus in a minute.
3 Close the Bus Format window. In the Timeline View Options menu, hide the video
tracks, if necessary.
4 In the timeline, select the A1 dial track.
5 In the media pool, right-click the 12 Dialogue Mix timeline and choose > Insert
Selected Clips to Timeline Using Timecode.
The nested 12 Dialogue Mix timeline appears in the A1 dial track.
6 Hide the media pool. Play the timeline to hear the incorporated (nested) dialog mix
with the master mix.
It sounds great. The dialogue sounds exactly like the dialogue mix timeline because it
is the dialogue mix timeline! Now let’s decompose it and add the DX bus to the busses
in the master timeline.

7 In the A1 dial track, right-click the nested timeline and choose > Decompose in Place >
Preserving Audio Data,
8 In the Decompose Preserving Audio Data dialog, set the Routing to New Matching
Busses. Click Decompose.
The entire dialogue mix timeline is added to timeline, including effects, processing,
automation, and bussing. In this case, there was a single bus named DX. When you
decompose a timeline using the New Matching Busses option, matching busses
from the nested timeline are added and appended with the track name the nest
was opened in. This is really handy for keeping track of busses coming in from other
mixes. The only duplicate track is the PFX on A5 and A6. So, you’ll need to mute one of
those tracks.

9 Mute the A5 PFX track.
10 Expand the mixer to see the DX-dial bus.
11 Increase the height of the A3 ADA VO wFX track. Show the Fader Level curve in
the track.
The automation is exactly where it should be on the track.
12 Play the beginning of the timeline to hear the resulting mix.
Although this is a very simple nested timeline example, it should give you a glimpse of
the possibilities for collaborative audio workflows and moving mixes from one timeline
to another.
Massaging the Mix

If you’re up to a little more mixing, this is a great time to play the timeline from the
beginning and follow all your new mixing instincts to adjust levels, enhance the EQ of a
track, record automation, or simply experiment with different settings and listen to the
outcome. Dive in! If you aren’t sure what to do, the dialogue tracks need to be sent to the
VERB aux bus for a little reverb.
Congratulations! You have finished the scene, and it’s ready for delivery. It might not be
perfect, but it has come a long way since the beginning of this lesson. And you are now
armed with a new set of Fairlight mixing techniques—including EQ, dynamics control,
auxiliary busses, automation, and submixes—that you can apply to your own projects.

Lesson Review
1 Which controls enable you to automate faders, pan controls, and other parameters?
a) Automation
b) Animation
c) Auxiliary
d) Agnostic
2 True or false? You can apply automation to the Loudness History curves in the
Loudness History graph.
3 To see bus tracks in the timeline, what other controls must be showing?
a) Mixer
b) Automation Controls
c) Effects Library
d) Bus Format window
4 What does the Automation Follows Edit button in the timeline toolbar do?
a) Allows you to edit automation curves with the Pencil tool
b) Allows you to split clips that have automation applied
c) Records automation data to the clips and the tracks so that the automation follows
clip movements or editing
d) Records automation data to a sidecar file so it follows the project to another system
5 If you decompose a nested timeline inside a master timeline, what is included from the
original timeline? (Choose all that apply.)
a) Clip and track colors from the original timeline
b) Clip and track effects
c) Track levels and panning
d) Clip Keyframes and track automation
e) Built-in track EQ and Dynamics
f) All of the above
Lesson Review 575

Answers
1 a
2 False
3 b
4 c
5 f

Lesson 13
Finishing and
Delivering Tracks
The final phase of audio post- Time

production is finishing and delivery. This lesson takes approximately
This process includes ensuring that 35 minutes to complete.
your final soundtrack meets delivery Goals

standards and that the files are
rendered in the correct format.
Bouncing Mixes in
In this lesson, you’ll bounce mono, the Fairlight Page 580
stereo, and surround sound stems Bouncing Tracks and Busses to

in your primary timeline. Finally, Create Stems 584
you’ll explore DaVinci Resolve 18’s Bouncing to Additional Formats 586
professional finishing tools and Delivering the Mix 593

techniques to deliver tracks as finished Audio Finishing with Mixed Stems 597
stereo and surround sound mixes. Delivering a Custom Clip 602
Lesson Review 605

Previously, in Lesson 8, you were introduced to the concept of stems and separating your
tracks into three constituent parts: dialogue, sound effects, and music. While setting up
busses in Lesson 11, you created separate submix busses and outputs to manage the signal
flow of dialogue, sound effects, and music tracks. In the next set of exercises, you’ll render
the dialogue tracks into dialogue stem files in different formats right in the Fairlight page.
First, let’s prepare the project and create four new tracks in the formats that you’ll need.
1 Open the timeline 13 Mix for Stems Start.
This is the timeline that you have been working on throughout the mixing lessons, with
all the level adjustments, sweetening, busses, and automation applied.
2 Right-click any track header and choose Add Tracks.
3 In the Add Tracks dialog, apply the following settings:
— Number of Audio Tracks: 4

— Insert Position: Above First Track
— Audio Track Type: Mono
Four new mono tracks appear at the top of the timeline in the A1–A4 positions.
4 Right-click the A2 track header and choose Change Track Type To > Stereo.
5 Select the A3 and A4 tracks. Right-click the selected track headers and choose
Change Track Type To > 5.1 > 5.1.
578 Lesson 13 Finishing and Delivering Tracks

NOTE The difference between 5.1 and 5.1 film is the channel mapping. 5.1
uses the channel configuration L, R, C, LFE, LS, RS. While 5.1 film follows the
SMPTE channel order of L, C, R, LS, RS, LFE. For this lesson, continue using the
standard 5.1 channel mapping.
6 Select the name field in the A1 track and type DX Mono. Press Tab to select the Name
field in the next track. Name the four new tracks as follows:
— A1 DX Mono
— A2 DX Stereo
— A3 DX 5.1
— A4 DX 5.1 Rec
DX, FX, and MX are common abbreviations for stem tracks. As you might have guessed,
they stand for Dialogue Mix, Effects Mix, and Music Mix.
You will bounce the dialogue mix to the A1–A3 tracks and re-record the dialogue
submix to the A4 track. The bouncing does not require any patching or arming of
tracks. To re-record the mono dialogue submix to the 5.1 track, you’ll patch all six
channels of the 5.1 main out to the six channels of the DX 5.1 track input. Let’s patch
the A4 track so it will be ready to arm and record in the next section.
7 Choose Fairlight > Patch Input/Output to open that window.

8 In the Patch Input/Output window, set the Source to Bus Out and the Destination
to Track Input. In the Source area, select all six of the purple 5.1 channels. In the
Destination area, select all six of the DX 5.1 Rec channels.
9 Click Patch. Close the window.
Finally, it’s a good idea to create a new bin for your rendered files.
10 Show the media pool and select the Lesson 13 bin. Right-click anywhere In the
Lesson 13 bin and choose New Bin.
11 Name the bin My Hyperlight Mixes and Stems. If necessary, choose Show All Clips
from the media pool options menu (...) to see the new bin in the media pool library.
Bouncing Mixes in
the Fairlight Page
In this exercise, you’ll bounce the signal from all the yellow dialogue tracks to a single track
to create a dialogue stem. This can be accomplished by either soloing the dialogue tracks
and bouncing the mix or simply bouncing the DIAL submix bus to the A1 Mono track.

You should check three things prior to bouncing tracks or busses. The first is to determine
what format you want to bounce to. The second is to select a destination for the bounced
file in the media pool. And third, you should check the output levels. As you already know,
bounced files go to the same location as your recorded files—i.e., the current capture
location on your system. But where do they go in the media pool? Just like recordings, they
go to a selected bin. You’ve already created a bin, so all you need to do is select it. Then,
check the levels and let the bouncing begin!
1 Show the media pool, if necessary.
2 In the Lesson 13 bin, select the newly created My Hyperlight Mixes and Stems bin.
3 In the transport controls toolbar, click the Toggle Automation button to turn on
automation, if necessary.
Turning on automation isn’t necessary for bouncing stems. However, if you applied
automation to your tracks, you’ll need to have automation turned on to hear those
changes. You’re ready to check levels, and to do that, you’ll need to employ the
Loudness meters.
Monitoring Loudness in Your Mix

Now that you’re ready for final output, you need to monitor the output levels. In the past,
broadcast standards were based on the highest peak level in a soundtrack. As long as
audio content did not exceed that level, it would pass quality control. That led to
commercials that applied heavy audio compression to narrow their dynamic range and
sustain all voiceovers at the maximum allowable (and overbearing) level.
To even the acoustic playing field, new loudness standards were introduced that apply to
all broadcast programs (television and radio), regardless of the length or type of program.
In North America and parts of Asia, an integrated target of -24 LUFS (Loudness Units
Full Scale) is the norm for broadcast content, whereas in Europe the target is -23 LUFS.
(Theatrical films, trailers, and streaming videos have different standards.)
DaVinci Resolve 18 includes three types of monitoring panel meters to measure such
standards. Peak meters are traditional Root Mean Square (RMS) meters available for every
track and bus that uses a decibel scale, True Peak (TP) meters in the Control Room that
measure the sum of all audio channels routed to the currently selected bus, and Loudness
meters measure the loudness in your program based on the loudness unit scale (LUFS).
Presets available in the Loudness options menu (...) allow you to choose the most current
loudness metering, ITU BS.1770-1 and ITU BS.1770-4, as well as international Loudness
standards for the meters.

The Fairlight page Loudness meters include a numeric display that outputs a variety of
useful loudness measurements, with the most important being the Integrated level.
— M displays the momentary loudness unit at the playhead location.

— The Loudness meter displays the sum of all channels for the duration of playback.
— The numeric value at the top is the max LUFS value over that range.
— Short displays loudness over a 30-second range.
— Short Max displays the played range’s maximum true peak level.
— Range displays the dynamic range of loudness in the entire program.
— Integrated displays the average loudness for the entire played range. This is the value
that targets either -23 LUFS or -24 LUFS as required by broadcasters and configured in
your Project Settings.
— True Peak (TP) meters show the highest program peak.
In this exercise, you’ll monitor the integrated loudness display and true peak meters to
ensure that your project audio comes within +/- 0.5 of the target -23 LUFS. The integrated
number is measured over the entire start-to-stop range as you play it.
1 At the top of the Loudness meters, click the Options menu (…) and choose the
BS.1770-4 standard. Also, make sure the Absolute Scale option is checked.

2 At the bottom of the Loudness meters, click the Reset button to clear all
current measurements.
3 Move the playhead to the beginning of the scene.
4 Under the Loudness meters, click the Start button to enable the analysis.
5 Press the Spacebar to play the timeline. Watch the Integrated loudness display during
playback to see how close to -23 LUFS this stereo mix measures on the loudness scale.
TIP If you’re delivering content for a region that requires an integrated

loudness level other than -23 LUFS, you can change the target loudness level in
the Project Setting’s Fairlight options.
6 When the scene finishes playing, look at the Integrated value on your Loudness meter.
The current Integrated value is around -25.5, which is close to but does not exceed the
-23 LUFS limit. However, the True Peak value in the Control Room is red TP -1.7, which
means the highest peak exceeds the target value of -2 dBTP. Chances are that peak
was caused by the explosion sound effect. Let’s lower the level of the SFX bus by -1 dB
and see if that solves the issue.
7 Reset the Loudness meters. Click Start.
8 Move the playhead to the beginning of the scene.

9 In the mixer, lower the level of the SFX Bus fader by -2 dB.
10 Play the scene again from the beginning and watch the Control Room meters when
Philip mentions the explosion.
This time, the TP meters should be below the -2 dBTP target. Shift-drag the fader,
if necessary, for fine incremental adjustments.
NOTE The Control Room and Loudness meter displays change color from blue to
red if levels exceed the target. Levels that are near the target but within the +/- 0.5
tolerance display in yellow. These colors also appear in the Loudness Graph in the
timeline.
You have verified the levels and can proceed with bouncing and delivery.
Bouncing Tracks and

Busses to Create Stems
In addition to using submixes for simplified mixing, another option is to bounce all the
dialogue tracks, or the dialogue submix, to a single track as a stem. In this exercise, you’ll
create a mono dialogue stem for the scene you mixed in the previous lessons. This time,
instead of bouncing to a new track, you’ll use the A1 mono track that you created ahead of
time, above the other dialogue tracks.
1 Set a play range from the first frame to the end of the last frame of audio.
You could solo the dialogue tracks and bounce the main output to the A1 DX Mono
track, or you could simply bounce the DIAL submix to the DX Mono track. For this
exercise, let’s use the latter method.

2 In the media pool, select the My Hyperlight Mixes and Stems bin, if necessary, and
hide the media pool.
3 Choose Timeline > Bounce Mix to Track.
The Bounce Mix to Track window includes options to bounce from any bus.
4 Set the Destination Track for the Bus 4 DIAL bus to the DX Mono track.
5 Click OK to bounce the DIAL submix to the DX Mono track.
Done! With a little knowledge of busses and mixing, you were able to bounce four
tracks into one. Let’s play it back to audition the results.
TIP Changing the color of clips and tracks is very useful for organizing,
marking, and maintaining your audio post-production workflow. However,
when you get down to the final mixed elements, it’s traditional for some mixers
to leave them native-audio green to indicate that they are the final version.
Bouncing Tracks and Busses to Create Stems 585

6 Mute tracks A5–A8. Play the scene from the beginning and listen to the bounced
dialogue with the other tracks. Enjoy! When you’re finished, stop playback.
Don’t worry if the levels aren’t perfect at this time. The important thing is that throughout
this book you transformed the rough dialogue from the edit through the entire audio post-
production process, resulting in a final mix. If you have any issues with your levels or the
bounced mix, you can always make changes and bounce again later because the process is
easy when you understand how it all works. You’re now ready to bounce dialogue stems in
stereo and 5.1 formats.
Bouncing to Additional Formats

The only differences between bouncing mono, stereo, and 5.1 surround formats is the bus
format that you are bouncing and how the tracks are panned. In this exercise you’ll use the
Bounce Mix technique to bounce the Stereo and 5.1 output busses to the A2 and A3 tracks.
This time, you’ll solo the dialogue tracks prior to bouncing. Let’s try it.
1 If necessary, mark the timeline from the first to the last frame.

2 Unmute then Solo the yellow dialogue tracks A5–A8.
3 Choose Timeline > Bounce Mix to Track.
4 In the Bounce Mix to Track dialogue, set the Destination Track for the Main 1 bus
(Stereo) to the DX Stereo track. Set 5.1 Main to the DX 5.1 track. Click OK.
The bounced stereo and 5.1 dialogue stems appear in the destination tracks. You now
have three dialogue stems in three different formats: mono, stereo, and 5.1 surround.
Each of the bounced clips is named after the bus that was patched to the track.

TIP To locate the bounced file on your system, you can right-click the clip and
choose Reveal in Finder. The bounced clips in the media pool contain all the
associated channels. At the Finder level, multichannel bounced media files are
created with separate mono files for each with the same names except for their
ending, which adds .L and .R, etc. for the channel designation of the bounced mono
file. Alternatively, you could right-click the bounced file and choose Export Audio
Files. When using the Export Audio Files option, you can render single channel clips
or a multichannel clip.
Renaming and Bouncing Stems

as Multichannel Files
Bounced files are named after their source, which makes it easy to identify them in the
media pool. In this exercise, you’ll rename and export your new dialogue stems to a folder
on the desktop.
1 Show the media pool. Select the My Hyperlight Mixes and Stems bin to see the
contents in the media pool library.
2 Select each of the rendered files one at a time to see how many channels show in the
Preview Player. Move the playhead in the Preview Player to the middle of the clip for a
better view of the bounced waveform.
Single channel, mono bounced file.

Two channel, stereo bounced file.
Six channel, 5.1 bounced file.

3 In the media pool, change the clip name for each file to match the associated track
name and channel configuration as follows:
— DX 5.1
— DX Mono
— DX Stereo
Now that you’ve given the bounced clips new names, you can show them in the timeline.
4 Choose Fairlight > View Clip Info Display. Set the Name option to Clip Name. Click OK.
The new clip names appear in on the bounced files in the timeline as well.
5 In the timeline, expand the height of the DX 5.1 track for a better view of the channels.
Although the clip has six separate channels, the dialogue stem only has sound in the center
channel. Why? Because dialogue should be panned to the center channel for surround
mixes. Similarly, if you bounced the M&E bus to a 5.1 track, there would be sound in all the
channels except the center, because M&E mixes exclude dialogue.

Recording a Dialogue Stem
The last bouncing technique for creating a dialogue stem is to actually record the sound
from a bus back into a track. When using this technique, you rely on recording a clean
signal from the patched bus into a track. A new multichannel file will be created (printed)
simultaneously on the capture location on your system. Just as with bouncing, it’s
important to record a signal with the correct channel configuration for the track that you’re
recording to. For this exercise, you’ll record the 5.1 output bus to the A4 track, while the
dialogue tracks are soloed. The 5.1 output bus has already been patched to the A4 track.
All you need to do is arm the track and click Record.
1 If necessary, solo all the yellow dialogue tracks.
2 Arm the A4 DX 5.1 Rec track.
3 Move the playhead to the beginning of the track.
4 In the transport controls, click the Record button to start recording. When the scene is
finished, stop playback.

5 Disarm the A4 track. Unsolo the yellow tracks.
6 If you compare the A3 and A4 tracks, the waveforms in the center channel should
look identical.
Rename, Compare, and

Bounce Stems Please!
Now that you’ve created four different dialogue stems in three different formats, it’s time
to rename the recorded clip and listen to different stems in the mix. Finally, you’ll bounce
the stem clips as files to a new folder on the desktop.
In the media pool, change the Clip Name for the recorded clip to match its track name.
Update the Clip Names for each of the stems in the media pool to include “Hyperlight”
before the track name and the channel type and stem in caps. For example, the mono
stem should be renamed Hyperlight DX Mono Stem or channel description and stem
in all caps if you prefer, like this: Hyperlight DX MONO STEM. Naming conventions vary
between companies and delivery requirements.
Once you’ve finished changing the names of the stems, give them a test drive in the
timeline with the other tracks. Be sure to mute the original dialogue tracks and only listen
to one stem at a time for comparison.
To bounce the stem clips as new multichannel files, you’ll use the Bounce Clip to Files
option available in the contextual right-click menu. Bounce each of the dialogue stems
from the A1, A2, and A3 tracks as a multichannel clip. Be sure to use the Clip Name. To keep
things organized, create a new folder called Hyperlight Dialogue Stems on your desktop
as a location for your bounced stems.
Congratulations! Not only did you edit the dialogue tracks, but you also sweetened, mixed,
and bounced the stems.

Delivering the Mix
Assuming that all the levels in the meters are great, it’s time to deliver your mix, whether it
is your final stereo mix, stems, or just an intermediate timeline such as your sound effects.
Whatever type of deliverable you need to output, the deliver page of DaVinci Resolve 18 is
where you can do it.
1 Unsolo all timeline tracks and mute the A1-A4 DX tracks. Click the Deliver button to
open the deliver page.
The toolbar buttons switch The viewer shows The Render Queue
between file rendering images from the contains all the jobs
and tape output. selected timeline. waiting to render.
The Render Settings The timeline displays a

configure the graphical representation of the
output format. timeline you are outputting.

2 In the upper left, in the Render Settings, click Audio Only. Also, choose Single Clip,
if necessary.
When rendering a mix, you will always want to output a single file for your project.
3 In the Export Audio tab, in the Format menu, choose Wave.
You can choose whatever format you need on your projects, but for this one, you’ll
export in a standard Wave format.
4 In the Codec menu, choose Linear PCM, if necessary.
The current Bit Depth is 16, which is fine for this lesson. You can change it to 24- or 32-
bit audio files at any time depending on your delivery requirements.
Below the Bit Depth is a very important checkbox because it determines whether your
mix will be rendered as a two-channel stereo file or as two single-channel mono files
for the left (L) and right ( R ) channels.
For this example, let’s render a stereo mix.

5 Deselect the “Render one track per channel” option, if necessary, so you will output a
single stereo file.
6 Click the Output Track pop-up menu to see the multiple available options.
Here you can select any of the busses, a timeline track, or all timeline tracks. With the
All Timeline Tracks option, the channel mapping of the rendered clip will match the
entire timeline all in one clip.
7 In the Output Track 1 menu, choose Main 1 Stereo.
TIP To simultaneously output additional busses or tracks as part of the same

rendered file, click the Add (+) button to the right of the Output Track pop-up
menu, and choose another output. Additionally, with DaVinci Resolve 18, you
can set the Output Track option to All Timeline Tracks, which will deliver all the
timeline tracks in the order that they appear in the timeline. This is great for
finishing editors with specific delivery requirements.
Next, you’ll need to add a custom name and browser location for your file.
8 Click the File tab and add a custom name as you would for any other output. In this
case, let’s name the file HL_Scene4 _2ch _mix.
Finally, you need to select a destination for the mixed file.
9 Click the Browse button to change the location of your mixed file to the Desktop folder.
Create a new folder on the desktop called My Mixed Stems. Click Save.

10 When you’re done selecting your drive destination, click Add to Render Queue.
11 In the lower-right corner of the Render Queue, click Render All.
12 When your file is finished rendering, head to your Desktop to locate and audition your
finished stereo mix.
As you can see, the file was rendered to the Desktop folder.

Audio Finishing with Mixed Stems
Now that you can bounce tracks in the Fairlight timeline and render stems and mixes in
the deliver page, you’ve reached the end of your audio post-production journey. All the
audio mixing is complete, the files are rendered, and you’re poised to put it all together
and deliver a finished movie. Whether the audio stems were created in DaVinci Resolve or
another audio application, every project finished in Resolve reaches this final stage when
the completed video, color correction, and compositing meet the finished soundtrack for
a final delivery.
In this exercise, you’ll open the finished scene with all its finalized sound elements, check
the loudness, and pan the mono tracks to prepare them for delivery.
1 Press Shift-7 to return to the Fairlight page.
2 Open the timeline, 14 Finishing Start. You can use the zoom sliders to fit all the clips
horizontally and vertically in the timeline.
This timeline includes the finished mixed stems from the audio post team at Cult
Nation Studios for the Hyperlight soundtrack. The tracks are as follows:
— A1 - Stereo Mix
— A2 - VX Stem (stereo dialogue stem)
— A3 - SFX Stem (stereo sound effects stem)
— A4 - MX Stem (stereo music stem)
— A5 - Audio 5 (channel 1 of a 6ch 5.1 surround sound mix)
— A6 - Audio 6 (channel 2 for a 6ch 5.1 surround sound mix)

Each of these track groups fulfills a different delivery requirement. They are all in the
same timeline at the same time, but they aren’t meant to be played all at once. Let’s
start at the top with the A1 - Stereo Mix track.
NOTE Many post-production mixers use VX, SFX, and MX as shortcuts for the
voice (dialogue), sound effects, and music stems.
3 Solo the A1 - Stereo Mix track. Resize the viewer in the monitoring panel so you can
clearly see the video playback while listening to the audio.
4 Reset the Loudness meter and click the Start button.
Now you will be able to monitor the loudness during playback.
5 Start playback, and watch the scene with the final mix. When you are finished,
stop playback.
The levels are good, and the integrated loudness is within +/- 0.5 of the target -23
LUFS. You probably noticed that many sound design and mixing techniques were used
to achieve this final mixed soundtrack. And, of course, ADA’s voice turned out great
when performed by a professional actress.

Panning Multichannel Mono Tracks
You’ll now turn your focus to the last six tracks in the timeline, which contain the surround
sound stems. When panning tracks to create a dimensional aural soundscape, the sound
designer and mixer have plenty of room to be creative. However, when the final mix is
rendered, the master audio channels must be mixed to the proper channels, or they won’t
be reproduced properly by the speakers. Worse, the show won’t pass quality control
because the audio channels are wrong. That’s why the channels are all clearly labeled in
the Audio Pan window.
Let’s zoom in on the tracks to see their current channel configurations and then look at the
pan controls to move them to the correct output channels.
1 Unsolo the A1 track. Solo tracks A5–A10. Zoom in on the timeline tracks so you can
clearly see the headers for those tracks.
In the upper-right corner of each track header, you can see that the current channel
mapping is 1.0 to indicate one mono channel. Also, the mixer shows that each of these
mono tracks is currently panned to the Center channel. As you know, in surround
sound mixing, the center channel is reserved for dialogue and LFE only.
You could manually pan each mono track to the proper channel in the mixer, or you
could use the handy Link Group window to link all six tracks to a single fader. Let’s
try plan B.

If you recall, the Link Group window highlights all mono tracks in the timeline—in this
case, all six of the 5.1 mono stems.
3 In the Link Group window, select the Audio 5 track, and then select the Audio 10 track
to select all six tracks.
At the bottom of the window, you’ll see options to Link as 5.1 Film or 5.1. The difference
between these options is that 5.1 Film configures to SMPTE standards, whereas 5.1
configures to a standard six-channel output.

4 Click the 5.1 button and close the window.
Two things just happened to the track panning. First, all the track headers now indicate
the channel panning for each track. Second, all six tracks appear under one fader in
the mixer with perfect 5.1 panning.
You can now head to the deliver page to render out the final program with any
combination of these audio tracks, stems, or mixes. But wait, there’s one more
thing that’s totally awesome about finishing in Resolve’s Fairlight page. What if
the deliverables require separate panned mono tracks instead of a linked group
represented by a single 5.1 track? No problem.
6 In the Link Group window, select the linked group and click Unlink.
The tracks are separated into single-channel mono tracks, but with a twist. In the
mixer, take a look at the track panning.

Awesome, right? The individual mono tracks maintain the same surround channel panning
that they had in the 5.1 linked group.
The tracks are now panned, and the LFE channel is good to go.
NOTE With DaVinci Resolve 18, you can convert any multichannel track into
a Linked Group of mono tracks. Just right-click the track header and choose Convert
to Linked Group from the contextual menu. Once converted, you can adjust levels
for each track independently, while maintaining single fader control of the group.
You can even unlink the group in the Link Group window to turn the tracks into
independent mono tracks with separate faders.
Delivering a Custom Clip

In this exercise, you’ll open the Lesson 01 build soundtrack project and deliver the finished
mix as a custom clip. While you are in the deliver page, you’ll also add the two different
output busses to the render queue. Finally, you’ll render all three deliverables.
1 In the Project Manager, open the project Lesson 01 build soundtrack.
2 If necessary, open the timeline 5 GOW Trailer to Render.
3 Press Shift-8 to go to the deliver page.
4 In the Render Settings, select the Custom clip option.

5 In the Video settings, set the Format to QuickTime and the Codec to H.264.
6 In the Audio settings, set the Output Track 1 to Stereo Out.
7 In the Filename field, type GOW trailer.
8 Set the Location to a new folder on your desktop called GOW.
9 Click Add to Render Queue.
Next, you’ll add the two output busses as audio-only renders.
10 At the top of the Render Settings, select the Audio Only option.
11 In the Audio settings, set the Format to Wave.
12 Set the Output Track 1 as Stereo Out.
Delivering a Custom Clip 603

13 Click the Add (+) button to the right of the Output Track 1 dropdown menu.
14 If necessary, set the Output Track 2 to -10 dBTP (Stereo).
16 In the Render Queue, click the empty space to deselect Job 2.
17 Click Render All.

18 Go to the desktop to see the rendered files in the GOW folder.
Lesson Review
1 What factor determines the channel configuration of a bounced mix?
a) Selected tracks
b) The type of track that is bounced
c) Bouncing matches the channel mapping of the A1 track.
d) The channel mapping of the Main or Submix bus that is bounced
2 Identify one or more channels that are used for low-frequency effects (LFE) in a
standard six-channel, 5.1 surround sound mix.
a) Channels 1 and 2
b) Channel 3
c) Channel 4
d) Channel 5 or 6
3 True or false? In the Deliver page render settings, you should always render your mix
as a single clip.
4 True or false? Linking six mono tracks as a 5.1 group will automatically pan them to the
correct channels with a single fader control. Subsequent un-linking of that same group
of tracks will retain each mono track’s 5.1 channel panning.
Lesson Review 605

Answers
1 d. A bounced mix follows the channel configuration of the Main output or Submix bus
selected in the Bounce Mix to Track window.
2 c
3 True
4 True

Lesson 14
Exploring Dolby
Atmos Integration
Fairlight’s immersive audio tools and Time

workflows for immersive formats, This lesson takes approximately
including Dolby Atmos, require 35 minutes to complete.
DaVinci Resolve 18 Studio. If you’re Goals

working with DaVinci Resolve 18, you can
read through the steps to understand
Importing and Adding Files to
how Dolby Atmos works in the Fairlight
the Timeline 610
page. You can also import and watch
the NaturesFury.mp4 movie because it
has a stereo track.
Viewing “Flying Object”

Pan Automation 641
Creating a Dolby Atmos

Timeline Preset 646
Enabling Dolby Atmos for Mixing 650
Lesson Review 654

DaVinci Resolve 18 Studio offers fully integrated support for ground-up creation of
immersive Dolby Atmos production, playback, mixing, and rendering with bed tracks,
busses, and monitoring. In this lesson, you’ll work with a professionally produced Dolby
Atmos demo project to explore at a high-level the workflows and integration built right
into the Fairlight page. Then you’ll import the same master file through the Fairlight
Immersive tools to recreate the entire Dolby Atmos immersive mix where you can
visualize the panning automation for the flying objects and export a new master file
right in the timeline.
What Does Dolby Atmos Do?

Dolby Atmos has become the immersive audio standard for film and episodic
content creation. Dolby Atmos adds a height element to immerse the listener
and uses a combination of audio objects using panning metadata and traditional
channel-based bussing and panning. This, along with the Dolby Atmos Renderer,
optimizes the playback experience for a wide variety of monitoring configurations.
NOTE If you need to download the media for this lesson, go back to the “Getting
Started” section at the beginning of this book and use the R17 Fairlight Part 4 link
to download the Lesson 14 media. You can also download the Part 4 link via the
Training page available in the DaVinci Resolve Help menu.

In this exercise, you’ll create a new project where you’ll sync, import, and explore the Dolby
Atmos demo movie, Nature’s Fury. The media for this lesson is located in Part 4 of the R17
Fairlight Book Media folder on your desktop.
1 Locate the R18 Fairlight Book Media folder on your desktop or Finder.
608 Lesson 14 Exploring Dolby Atmos Integration

2 Through your computer’s Finder, open the R18 Fairlight Book Media > R18 Fairlight
Part 4 > Lesson 14 Dolby Atmos folder to see the contents.
As you can see, the Lesson 14 Dolby Atmos media includes two files: a
NaturesFury.mp4 movie file and a NaturesFury.wav audio file.
3 Play the NaturesFury.mp4 movie to preview the video and embedded stereo mix.
When you’re finished, close the Finder window and media player that you used to
play the clip.
Now that you have previewed the movie that you’ll work with, let’s start a new project
where you’ll sync the video and audio clips.
4 Open DaVinci Resolve Studio.
5 In the Project Manager, click New Project.
6 In the New Project dialog, type Natures Fury in the name field, and then click Create.
7 If necessary, double-click the new Natures Fury project to open it.
8 In the Fairlight Page, choose Workspace > Reset UI Layout.

Importing and Adding
Files to the Timeline
In this exercise, you’ll import the Natures Fury files in the media pool and utilize some
built-in Fairlight page features to quickly create a timeline from the video clip. Next, you’ll
add the Natures Fury Dolby Atmos audio clip to a new track and instantly transform the
timeline stereo output bus to a Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 bus. Finally, you’ll sync the video and
stereo clips to the Dolby Atmos clip in the timeline.
2 In the media pool options menu (…), select the Show All Clips option.
3 Press Command-I (macOS) or Ctrl-I (Windows) to open the Import Media dialog.
4 In the Import Media dialog, navigate to the R18 Fairlight Book Media > R18
Fairlight Part 4 > Lesson 14 Dolby Atmos folder. Select both of the media files:
NaturesFury.mp4 and NaturesFury.wav. Click Open.
The media files appear in the media pool library. In DaVinci Resolve, you can instantly
create the first timeline in a new project by simply dragging a clip from the media pool
to the empty space in the timeline area. Let’s try it.
NOTE You can check the file format of a selected clip in the media pool
or timeline via the File tab of the Inspector. A Dolby Atmos master fille, like
NaturesFury.wav, will be identified as such in the Audio Codec and Audio
Format fields.

5 Show video tracks in the Timeline View Options menu. Drag the NaturesFury.mp4
video clip from the media pool to the empty timeline space.
Since you made the timeline with a video clip, you’ll see both the video and audio
tracks in the timeline.
6 Click the red Toggle Automation button to turn off automation. Press Shift-Z to fit the
clip horizontally to the timeline window.
7 Zoom vertically until you can clearly see the waveform in the A1 track. Play the
beginning of the clip.
Notice that the Bus1 Flex Bus output bus, Control Room, and Loudness meters are all
stereo to match the channel mapping of the clip that you used to create the timeline.

Normally, adding another audio clip to a new track will create a track to match
the channel mapping of the new clip. However, the Dolby Atmos integration in
DaVinci Resolve goes one step further and also creates a Dolby Atmos output
bus as well.
8 Drag the NaturesFury.wav audio clip from the media pool to the empty timeline space
below the A1 track. Align the clip in the A2 track with the beginning of the timeline.
9 Solo the A2 track and start playback.
Notice that the Bus1 output bus, Control Room, and Loudness meters are now
12 channels wide to accommodate the default 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos format.
In this example, to sync the video and stereo clips in the V1 and A1 tracks to the Dolby
Atmos clip in the A2 track, you simply drag them into position.
10 In the timeline, select the video clip in V1 and the audio clip in A1. Drag the selected
clips to the right until they align with the end of the clip in the A2 track.
11 Solo the A2 track, if necessary, and play part of the timeline. Watch the viewer to see
that the video and audio are in sync. Continue playback and un-solo A2. The audio
tracks should be in sync with one another. Continue playback. Experiment with soloing
or muting the tracks to hear one, then the other, and then both. When you’re satisfied
that they are in sync, stop playback.

12 Hide the media pool. Mute the A1 track.
13 Drag downward on the A2 track header to vertically zoom the track until you clearly
see the waveform and name of each channel in the A2 track.
The Dolby badge at the head of each channel in the NaturesFury.wav audio clip
indicates that it is a Dolby Atmos master file that is playing through the internal Dolby
Atmos Renderer in DaVinci Resolve.
NOTE When you add a Dolby Atmos master file to the timeline in DaVinci Resolve,
you cannot add fades or edit the individual channels. This is to maintain the
integrity of the Dolby Atmos master. You can, however, sync, trim, or move the
master file as needed within the timeline for packaging and delivery.

Changing the Playback Format
Whenever you add a Dolby Atmos master file to a DaVinci Resolve project, the default
channel format is Dolby Atmos 7.1.4, which breaks down as 7 standard surround channels,
1 LFE (subwoofer) channel, and 4 overhead height channels. The overhead speakers
are necessary for the immersive Dolby Atmos experience. If the monitoring speakers
connected to your DaVinci Resolve system aren’t set up for Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 playback,
you can change the channel format to match your system. In this exercise, you’ll change
the channel format of the Dolby Atmos master file in the A2 track to Stereo so that you can
monitor it through your computer speakers or headphones.
An advantage of working with a Dolby Atmos master file rather than a standard channel-
based file is that the Dolby Atmos master files can be played in any standard format
through the internal Dolby Atmos Renderer. Changing the channel format of a Dolby
Atmos master file only changes the way it will play back through the internal Dolby Atmos
Renderer built in to DaVinci Resolve. All the channels and embedded metadata are
retained for packaging and delivery.
In this exercise, you’ll change the format of the A2 clip from Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 to stereo
using the Clip Attributes dialogue.
1 Right-click the clip in the A2 track and choose > Clip Attributes.
2 In the Clip Attributes dialog, set the Format to Stereo.

3 Click OK.
The A2 track now contains a two-channel stereo clip in a 12-channel 7.1.4 track.
4 Right-click the A2 track header and choose Change Track Type To > Stereo.
5 Adjust the vertical zoom to reduce the height of the A2 track to match the A1 track
height. Notice that the stereo clip in the A2 track still has a Dolby badge indicating that
it is a Dolby Atmos master file.
You can generate your own channel-based files right from the Dolby Atmos master
file, so there is no need to keep the A1 stereo track showing in the timeline. In fact, you
don’t need to see the video track either.
6 In the Tracks Index Tracklist, hide the visibility (eye icon) for the V1 Video 1 track as well
as the A1 Audio 1 track.
The Video 1 and Audio 1 tracks (V1 and A1) are no longer visible in the timeline. Keep in
mind that hiding an audio or video track does not disable or mute them.
7 In the Tracks Index, Mute the A1 Audio 1 track, and then hide the Index.
In the next exercise, you’ll use the internal Dolby Atmos Renderer to generate a stereo
downmix in the A2 track.

Rendering Downmixes
The internal Dolby Atmos Renderer in the Fairlight page not only lets you play a Dolby
Atmos master file in any standard channel format, but also lets you render downmixes
right in the timeline. In this exercise, you’ll use the power of the internal Dolby Atmos
Renderer to generate a stereo and a 5.1 downmix file from the Dolby Atmos master file. If
you’ve been following along with the previous lessons, you already have the skills to render
and name the new files. All you need to do is mark the clip and bounce the selected track
to a new layer. The internal Dolby Atmos render will do all the processing under the hood.
1 Press R for the Range selection tool. Click the master file in the A2 track to select the
track and set a range for the entire clip.
2 Press A for the standard selection tool.
3 Choose Timeline > Bounce Selected Tracks to New Layer.
The internal Dolby Atmos Renderer exports a bounced stereo file based on the Dolby
Atmos master file. The bounced file appears in the A2 track, on the top layer, above the
original master file.
4 Choose View > Show Audio Tack Layers.
With Audio Track Layers showing, you can see the master file in the bottom layer and
the bounced file in the top layer for each channel.
5 Hide the Audio Track layers.

6 Drag the bounced clip from the A2 track down to the empty space beneath the
A2 track to create a new stereo track for the bounced file.
This is a good time to give the bounced file a suitable clip name.
7 Right-click the clip in the A3 track and choose > Find in Media Pool.
8 In the media pool, change the name of the selected clip to NF stereo downmix.
9 Choose Fairlight > View Clip Info Display.
10 In the Clip Info Display dialog, select the Clip Name option. Click OK.
The clip name appears on the clip in the A3 track. This is also a good time to name
the tracks.
11 Name the A2 track Dolby Atmos. Name the A3 track Stereo
Experiencing Dolby Atmos in

Headphones with Binaural Rendering
DaVinci Resolve 18 Studio has added binaural rendering and monitoring to the Dolby
Atmos integration. What does that mean? Binaural audio involves reproducing the way
we (humans) experience sound naturally to create the aural illusion of an immersive 3D
environment with headphones. The built-in Dolby Atmos Renderer in DaVinci Resolve
includes a Binaural option for the channel format within the Clip Attributes. The binaural
format is two channels, like stereo, and uses a stereo track for playback and monitoring.
Binaural sound, on the other hand, is a dramatically different experience for the listener.

Hearing is believing. In this exercise, you’ll change the Dolby Atmos master file in the A2
track to the Binaural format and compare it to the stereo downmix that you just created.
Then, you’ll bounce it to a new layer, move it to a new track, and rename the track and file.
Since these steps are nearly identical to the previous exercise, they should only take a few
minutes to complete.
One more thing before you start: grab some headphones and put them on so you can
experience the immersive sound along the way!
1 Right-click the Dolby Atmos master clip in the A2 track and choose Clip Attributes.
2 In the Clip Attributes dialog, set the Format to Binaural.
3 Click OK.
The A2 track now contains a two-channel binaural clip in a stereo track.
At a glance, you can see that the 2-channel clip on the A2 Dolby Atmos track has a
much fuller waveform than the stereo version of the same file in the A3 track. You
might assume that means the binaural clip in the A2 track is much louder than the
stereo clip in A3. There is only one way to find out. Play them and compare.

4 Solo the A2 track and start playback. Toggle between soloing the A2 and A3 tracks to
compare them as needed during playback. When you’re finished, un-solo all tracks.
Chances are that you could really hear the difference between the stereo and binaural
versions. Now it’s time to bounce the binaural file to a new layer, and then move it to a
new track.
5 Set a range for the clip in the A2 track, if necessary.
6 Select the A2 Dolby Atmos track. Choose Timeline > Bounce Selected Tracks to
New Layer.
7 Drag the bounced clip from the A2 track down to the empty space beneath the
A3 track to create a new stereo track for the bounced file.
8 Double-click the clip in the A4 track to open the Clip Attributes window. Change the
Clip Name to NF binaural downmix.
The clip name appears on the clip in the A4 track.

9 Name the A4 track Binaural.
To fully appreciate the binaural clip that you just rendered from a Dolby Atmos master
file, let’s take a few minutes to listen to the A4 track while watching the Nature’s Fury
video full-screen.
10 Solo the A4 track. Move the playhead to the beginning of the timeline, if necessary.
11 Choose Workspace > Viewer Mode > Cinema Viewer or press Command-F (macOS),
Ctrl-F (Windows). Enjoy the show. When you’re finished, stop playback and press Esc
(Escape) to exit full-screen mode and return to the previous layout.
NOTE You don’t need to turn up the volume to enjoy the binaural sound. Please
listen at a comfortable level, which should be well below 50 percent of the
computer’s output level.
Another Downmix Please!

Now that you’ve done such a great job creating the 2-channel downmixes from the Dolby
Atmos master file, it’s time to repeat the process to create a six-channel 5.1 downmix. Start
by changing the Dolby Atmos track format to 5.1, and then change the Dolby Atmos master
file format to 5.1. Bounce the selected track to a new layer and drag that layer below the
A4 Binaural track. Rename the new track and the new bounced downmix accordingly.

If you aren’t sure of the steps, go back to the beginning of the previous exercise and follow
the steps—except that this time, you are changing the format to 5.1.
Analyzing and Normalizing Levels

Now that you have generated stereo and 5.1 downmixes, it’s a good idea to check their
loudness levels to see if they meet delivery standards. In this exercise, you’ll use Fairlight’s
new offline audio level analysis to check the loudness levels based on a specific loudness
measurement preset. This is a great way to quickly measure loudness in imported audio
files or bounced mixes. If the levels are too loud, you can normalize the clip to the same
loudness preset and then run the analysis again. For this example, you’ll analyze the NF
stereo downmix with the BS.1770-4 loudness measurement preset. Then, you’ll analyze the
NF 5.1 downmix using the new Netflix loudness preset.
1 In the timeline, right-click the NaturesFury Stereo Downmix clip in the A3 track and
choose > Analyze Audio Levels to open that dialog.

2 In the Analyze Audio Levels dialog, choose ITU-R BS.1770-4. Click Analyze.
When using the ITU-R BS.1770-1 and ITU-R BS.1770-4 loudness presets, you will
always see accurate True Peak and Loudness measurements in blue. The other
loudness standards presets use red or yellow to show that the levels are too loud or
within tolerance, respectively. In this case, a True Peak level of 0.0 dBFS and Loudness
measurement of -16.8 LUFS is too loud for any broadcast delivery standards. Luckily,
you can normalize the clip to whichever loudness requirements you need.
3 Right-click the NF stereo downmix clip in the A3 track and choose Normalize
Audio Levels.
Your goal is for a maximum Target Level of -2.0 dBTP and Target Loudness of -23 LKFS.
Setting the Normalization dialog to the ITU-R BS.1770-4 mode will reduce the clips
relative loudness as much as necessary until it is below or within tolerance of both
loudness targets.
4 In the Normalize Audio Level dialog, set the Normalization Mode to ITU-R BS.1770-4.
Click Normalize. Once the normalization is complete, Analyze the audio levels for ITU-R
BS.1770-4 again.
Mission accomplished! The levels of the stereo downmix meet the loudness standard
and are ready for delivery.

More Analysis and Normalization Please!
Now that you’ve seen how easy it is to run the offline audio level analysis on a clip, you can
repeat the previous exercise for the 5.1 downmix. However, this time you’ll analyze and
normalize with the new Netflix loudness preset. When you’re finished, the loudness levels
of the NF 5.1 downmix clip in the A4 track should be within tolerance or just below the
Netflix loudness requirements of True Peak (-2.0) and Loudness (-27.0).
One more thing! Since both of the downmixed files are ready for delivery, go ahead
and use the Export Audio Files feature (from the right-click menu) to export all of the
downmixes to a new folder named NF Mixes.
Exploring Delivery Options

DaVinci Resolve 18 offers two Dolby Atmos deliverable formats in the deliver page
including an audio-only ADM broadcast wave format (BWF) and an MXF IAB format for IMF
video and audio packaging. When delivering either format from a Dolby Atmos master file,
the delivery options and results will be based on the Render Settings on the deliver page.
In this exercise, you’ll render both options. First, let’s show the A1 reference track, and then
delete the track so that the Dolby Atmos master file is in the A1 track.
One thing to remember about the Dolby Atmos integration in DaVinci Resolve 18 is that a
Dolby Atmos master file always retains the Bed and Object information to scale up or down
to play in any standard Dolby Atmos or channel-based format.
In the next series of exercises, you’ll render two Dolby Atmos master files from the
NaturesFury project.
1 In the Tracks Index, show the A1 track. Right-click the A1 track header and choose >
Delete Track. In the Fairlight page timeline, mark an In point at 01:00:30:00 and an Out
point at 01:01:00:00.
2 In the deliver page Render Settings panel, adjust the following settings as follows:
— Select the Audio Only render preset

— In the Filename field, type NF Dolby Atmos 30sec
— Location: Browse to the desktop and create a new folder named
NF Dolby Atmos deliverables
— Audio Format: Wave
— Codec: ADM BWF
— Sample Rate: 48000 (to match project)
— Bit Depth: 24

To render a Dolby Atmos master file, you’ll need to be sure that the Output Track and
Track Number are set to the timeline track containing the Dolby Atmos master file. In
this example, the A2 track (currently 5.1 format) contains the Dolby Atmos master file.
— Output Track 1: Timeline Track

— Track Number: 1
Notice that when you change the Track Number to track 2, the FFOA timecode at
01:00:00:00 field becomes active and checked automatically. You can use the FFOA
to set the start of actual audio in the ADM master file. Preparing a project for ADM
delivery usually includes adding a 2-pop (1 frame 1kHz tone) 2 seconds before the first
frame of action for sync to picture.
Next, you’ll use the IMF Netflix preset to deliver an IMF IAB package containing both
the video and Dolby Atmos master file.

4 At the top of the Render Settings panel, select the IMF > Netflix preset.
Since this is a preset, you won’t make any changes to the Video, Audio, or File settings.
The only thing you’ll need to check is the Output Track and Track Number to make sure
they are set to the correct timeline track on the Audio tab.
5 Click the Audio tab, if necessary, to see the audio settings.
6 Click the Output Track 1 dropdown menu to see the different options, including
Timeline Track, All Timeline Tracks, and IAB Track File.
For this exercise, you’ll use the Timeline Track option.
NOTE When creating an IMF package with a Dolby Atmos master file in the
deliver page, the All Timeline Tracks option can be used if you want to render
additional channel-based tracks such as the stereo and 5.1 downmixes along
with an IAB Dolby Atmos master file in the same package.
Any timeline track that does not contain a Dolby Atmos master file will render
a file based on the track’s channel configuration. The IAB Track File option
lets you browse to and select the original Dolby Atmos master file at the
Finder level and copy it directly into the IMF package rather than render a
new master file.
If you’re working with a Dolby Atmos Master file as a pre-existing IAB.mxf, or

you’ve imported an existing Dolby Atmos Master file format to the timeline, the
Dolby Atmos Master is packaged without being modified. However if a Dolby
Master File is in the timeline, it can be trimmed, cut, and synced to video prior
to to authoring to IMF.
For example, if the export is the same frame rate and the clip is simply
trimmed, the source master file is fully copied into the IMF.

7 Set the options at the bottom of the Render Settings Audio panel as follows:
— Output Track 1: Timeline Track

— Track Number: 1
— Export as Dolby Atmos IMF IAB (This option should be checked automatically when
you select a track containing a Dolby Atmos master file.)

9 In the Render Queue, deselect both render jobs, if necessary. Click Render All.
10 At the Finder level of your system, locate the NF Dolby Atmos Deliverables folder and
view the contents.
Here you should find an IMF package NF Dolby Atmos 30sec (folder) containing
numerous XML files as well as the IAB Dolby Atmos .mxf master file and the Video .mxf file.
Additionally, there should be a Broadcast Wave File named NF Dolby Atmos 30sec.wav.

Check Your Deliverables Please!
You’ve generated two different 30-second Dolby Atmos files from the original Dolby Atmos
master file. Before moving on to the next section, it’s a good idea to import and verify that
your deliverables worked as expected. In the Fairlight page, import the contents of the
NF Dolby Atmos Deliverables folder. Make a new timeline from the IMF and ADM files. In
the timeline, expand the audio track vertically to see if it has the Dolby badge and is in the
default 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos master file format.

Importing a Dolby Atmos Master
So far, you have added a Dolby Atmos master file to the timeline, rendered downmixes, and
delivered the master file in two different formats. Now, it’s time to step things up a notch
and import the same Dolby Atmos master file through the Fairlight Page > Immersive Tools
menu. This method of importing a file will generate a new timeline that will recreate the
full Dolby Atmos mix complete with content, bed and object tracks, panning automation
metadata for the flying objects, and VCA groups to control the object tracks based on the
group assignments prior to generating the master file. Once you have imported a Dolby
Atmos master file through the Fairlight Immersive tools, you can utilize additional features
and immersive tools including the Space View scope, Renderer Settings, and real-time
playback monitoring via the internal Dolby Atmos Renderer.
1 Choose Fairlight > Immersive Audio > Import Master File.
2 In the Finder window, navigate to the R18 Fairlight Book Media > R18 Fairlight Part 4 >
Lesson 14 Dolby Atoms > NaturesFury.wav file.
3 Click Open.
Once you click Open, the following things will happen:
— A new timeline will be created. If you followed all the previous steps and exercises,
it will be Timeline 4.
— The timeline will be populated with all the content necessary to recreate the Dolby
Atmos mix.
— Automation is turned on so that all panning automation on the object tracks will be
active during playback and rendering.
— The new timeline contains all the bed (standard channel mix), object (mono
tracks with panning metadata), and VCA groups (faders to control groups of
tracks that have automation applied) with the playhead at the start of the newly
generated clips.
— The new timeline’s timecode and position of the content will be based on the
timecode of the original Dolby Atmos master file. In this case, the timeline starts
at 00:00:00:00, and the clips start at 00:59:58:00 with a 2-pop on the first frame of
audio, and the sound (FFOA) starts at 01:00:00:00.

TIP When working with a timeline with a large gap between the start of the
timeline and the first clip, it’s easy to scroll too far in one direction or the other
and lose sight of the clips in the timeline. If that happens, you can use the Up
Arrow and Down Arrow keys to quickly jump forward or back to the head or tail
of the timeline clips.
4 Play the beginning of the clips in the timeline.
This is the exact same master file that you were working with before, only this time you
have an all-access backstage pass to see the full behind-the-scenes mix including every
track, waveform, panner, and fader needed to output the Dolby Atmos master file.

Identifying Bed, Object, and VCA Groups
Now that you have imported the Dolby Atmos master file, let’s take a moment to identify
its various components in the timeline. These include the A1 Composite Bed track,
subsequent object tracks, and the four VCA groups that can be used to control the levels of
the corresponding object tracks. Dolby Atmos master files can contain up to a maximum of
128 channels. The first 10 channels are reserved for the bed track. The bed track or tracks
represent the standard channel-based mix, such as 5.1 (6 channels) or 7.1 (8 channels).
When you import a Dolby Atmos master file through the Fairlight Immersive tools, the bed
track (A1) matches the channel format of the bed track when the original master file was
created. In this case, the Dolby Atmos bed track in A1 is 7.1.2, (7 surround channels, 1 LFE,
and 2 overhead channels), hence the first 10 channels. The remaining 118 channels can be
used for additional beds or mono objects. This example includes a 7.1.2 bed track and the
maximum allowable 118 object tracks, plus four VCA groups with faders.
2 Expand the mixer as far as you can toward the left.
3 Double-click the track meters in the monitoring panel to double-stack the meters so
that you can monitor all 109 tracks at once.

NOTE By default, bed tracks are purple, and object tracks are green, similar
to what you will find in the external Dolby Atmos Renderer available in the
Dolby Atmos Production Suite and Dolby Atmos Mastering Suite. For more
detailed information about Dolby Atmos and the Dolby Atmos Renderer, go to
https://professional.dolby.com/siteassets/content-creation/dolby-atmos/dolby_
atmos_renderer_guide.pdf
4 Increase the height of the A1 track header until you can see all the channels in
the timeline.
The contents of the A1 bed track are just what you would expect to see for a 7.1 mix,
with the added Left top surround (Lts) and Right top surround (Rts) channels.
5 Zoom vertically to reduce the height of all the tracks as much as possible.
You can read the first word in each object track’s header and quickly identify the
types of object tracks by the name: Dialog, Music, or Effects. For training purposes,
these names were added to the original master file to match the VCA groups in the
mixer. Otherwise, when importing a master file through the Fairlight Immersive tools,
unnamed object tracks would be named “Object” and a sequential number starting
with the first object track.

NOTE The VCA groups were added along with the track names to demonstrate
how they are incorporated as embedded metadata when generating in a Dolby
Atmos master file.
6 Select the first Dialog Object track, A2, and zoom vertically to increase the height of
the tracks until you can see the name of the track.
The first object track in A2 is labeled accordingly as Dialog Object 1.
Next, let’s look at the VCA groups in the mixer. VCA groups let you adjust relative levels
of all tracks in a group even if they have automation applied.

7 In the mixer, expand the bus section toward the left until you can see the channel
strips for Bus 2 and all four VCA groups.
These VCA faders can be used to adjust the levels of all the member tracks, even with
automation turned on.
8 In the mixer, drag the Dialog VCA fader up and down to see all the faders in the Dialog
group move simultaneously, relative to the movement of the VCA fader.
9 Double-click the Dialog VCA fader to reset the level of the VCA group and all member
tracks to unity.
10 In the mixer, drag the left edge of the Bus 2 channel strip toward the right to reveal
more track channel strips and hide the VCA channel strips.

NOTE You can assign tracks to VCA groups in the Group controls located between
the Bus Outputs and Track Name fields on each channel strip in the mixer. Click
the Group control to open the dropdown menu where you can change the group,
choose No Group, or open the VCA Assign window. You can rename VCA groups in
the Tracks Index by clicking the VCA name field in the Name column.
Revealing Auto-Patching to the

Internal Dolby Atmos Renderer
The last stop on this master file timeline tour is the patching to the internal Dolby Atmos
Renderer. As you already know, the internal Dolby Atmos Renderer handles all the
processing under the hood, so you can play back and render downmixes or deliver a new
master file. When you import a master file via the Fairlight Immersive tools, the bed and
object tracks are automatically patched to the internal Dolby Atmos Renderer. This is the
same patching you would do manually if you were mixing and creating original Dolby
Atmos content in DaVinci Resolve.
1 Choose Fairlight > Patch Input/Output.
2 In the Patch Input/Output window, set the Source to Bus Out and the Destination to
Dolby Atmos Send.

Here you can see that the 10 Composite Bed channels are patched to the first ten
channels of the Dolby Atmos Send.
3 Set the Source to Track Direct.
Here you see that the object track channels starting at Dialog Object 1 are patched to
the sends starting with Send 11.
4 Close the Patch Input/Output window.
Syncing Video From an A/V Source Clip

If you have a video-only clip to sync to the audio tracks in the timeline, you can drag it right
from the media pool to the timeline and move it into position for sync. That isn’t the case
here, since the video clip you have for this project includes a stereo track. At this time, in
the Fairlight page, there is no way to add video only from a source clip that includes audio.
So, for this exercise, you’ll jump over to the edit page where you can edit just the video
from an A/V source clip to the timeline.
1 Press Shift-4 to go to the edit page. Press Down Arrow to move the playhead to the
beginning of the clips in the timeline.

2 In the media pool, double-click the NaturesFury.mp4 clip to load it into the
source viewer.
3 Hover your pointer over the source viewer until you see an overlay with a video clip
icon on the left and an audio waveform icon on the right.
This editing overlay allows you to edit video only or audio only from the source clip. In
this case, you want to edit video only.
4 Drag the video-only overlay to the empty Video track in the timeline.
Now that the video clip is in the timeline, you can sync the tail of the clip to the tail of
the audio clips. If snapping is turned on, the tail of the video clip should snap to the
end of the audio.
5 In the V1 track, drag the video clip into position so that the last frame aligns with the
last frame of the audio clips.
6 Press Shift-7 to go to the Fairlight page.

Changing the Monitoring Format
Earlier in this lesson, you changed the playback format for a Dolby Atmos master file in
the timeline using the Clip Attributes dialog. When a Dolby Atmos master file is imported
through the Fairlight Immersive tools, the Dolby Atmos Renderer playback format options
are integrated right into the Fairlight monitoring controls. You can change the monitoring
format anytime, even during playback. Let’s try it.
1 In the Fairlight Monitoring controls, click the dropdown menu arrow to the right of the
default monitoring format 7.1.4 to show the menu.
2 Start playback at the beginning of the clips.
3 Choose 2.0 from the monitoring menu to change the playback format to stereo.
The Control Room and Loudness meters update to display two-channel stereo playback.
4 Choose Binaural from the monitoring menu to change the playback format. Play a
section of the clips to hear the binaural sound.
5 Start playback from the beginning of the clips. Toggle back and forth between 2.0 and
Binaural monitoring in the monitoring dropdown menu during playback.

6 Set the monitoring menu to 5.1.4 to update playback to that Dolby Atmos format.
The Control Room and Loudness meters update to display 10-channel Dolby Atmos
5.1.4 playback.
7 Set the monitoring menu back to the default 7.1.4 playback format. Feel free to set the
playback monitoring to fit your listening environment.
NOTE Setting a playback monitoring format automatically updates the Patch

Input/Output settings accordingly. If you’re monitoring through external speakers,
set the monitoring to match your speaker setup. Doing so does not change the
Dolby Atmos delivery format.
Showing the Dolby Atmos Renderer Settings

Dolby Atmos Master files can be monitored with speaker layouts that include overhead
speakers for immersive playback and more traditional 7.1, 5.1, and stereo.
When a Dolby Atmos master is monitored in 5.1 or stereo, there are controls that
determine how the overhead content and rear surround content are derived: either
directly from the renderer or downmixed from an intermediate layout. These are referred
to as Downmix settings.

1 Choose Fairlight > Immersive Audio > Renderer Settings.
Downmix settings work in conjunction with trim controls when monitoring in 5.1.2, 5.1,
and stereo. The automatic setting provides algorithmic dynamic trims that are
appropriate for the vast majority of content. In some cases, more specific control of
rear surround and height content is needed along with adjustment of the front/back
balance to ensure dialog intelligibility and balance with the floor speakers. Manual
trim controls are provided for this purpose. Keep in mind that any changes to these
controls are applied to the entire master. Manual trim control should be considered
an advanced setting.
2 In the Trim Controls, click the Manual option to engage the Trims and Front/Back
Balance controls for manual adjustment.
3 Click the Automatic option to return the Renderer settings to the Automatic controls
using the automatic Dolby Atmos algorithms to calculate the downmix trims.
4 Click Cancel to close the dialog.

NOTE You’ll find detailed information about Dolby Atmos workflows for
downmixing to 5.1 and stereo, as well as using the Dolby Atmos Renderer Downmix
and Trim Controls, on the learning.dolby.com webpage:
https://learning.dolby.com/hc/en-us/articles/360054531672-Module-7-4-Renderer-
Trim-and-Downmix-Controls
Viewing “Flying Object”

Pan Automation
Object tracks contain single-channel content that can be panned dynamically with
automation throughout the theater or living room to offer an immersive audience
experience. These are often referred to as “flying objects” and can be created from any
type of content. If you’re new to Dolby Atmos mixing and want to learn more about how,
when, and why to pan object tracks, studying a professionally mixed Dolby Atmos master
file is a great place to start. In this exercise, you’ll explore the three different places where
you can see the flying object panning automation for the Nature’s Fury project in the
Fairlight page. You’re already familiar with the panning controls in the mixer, so that’s a
good place to start. Here in the mixer, you can see automated panners move in real time in
the Pan controls and Audio Pan window.
1 In the timeline, adjust the horizontal and vertical zoom until you can see the full width
of the audio clips horizontally, as well as the Automation dropdown menu in the
track headers.
2 Scroll down to track A28 Effects Object 1. Select the A28 track header.

The mixer scrolls automatically to reveal the same selected track. The effects objects
have a lot of exciting panning automation, which you can see during playback.
3 Start playback from the beginning of the clips and watch the panners for the effects
objects move based on automation metadata.
The small pan control for each track in the mixer shows the panning action for all
visible channel strips during playback. For a more detailed look at the panning
automation for an individual track, you can open the 3D Audio Pan window.
4 Continue playback or restart playback from the beginning of the clips. In the mixer,
double-click the pan control for one of the Effect Object tracks.
5 Select another track to show it in the open 3D Audio Pan window.
The 3D Audio Pan window is where you adjust the pan controls to record automation
during a mix if you are using a mouse and keyboard.

NOTE If you’re using a Fairlight Desktop Console, Fairlight Audio Editor, or
Fairlight Studio Console, you can use touch-sensitive pan knobs to record Left/
Right (L/R), Front/Back (F/B) or Up/Down (U/D) panning automation.
6 Stop playback and close that Audio Pan window.
Showing Panning Automation in the Timeline

You can show any pan automation curve in the timeline by selecting it in the Automation Curve
dropdown menu in the track header. In this exercise, you’ll show the pan automation curves
for tracks A28–A33, which are the first six Effects Object tracks. There are seven different
pan curves that correspond with the controls of the 3D Audio Pan window including: L/R Pan,
F/B Pan, U/D Pan, Spread, Rotate, Size (formerly known as divergence), and Tilt. Let’s show
the L/R, F/B, and U/D curves among the A28–A33 tracks. Remember, if you select the tracks
first, you can hold the Option/Alt modifier key to apply changes to all selected tracks at once.
1 In the timeline, set Automation Curve drop-menus for tracks A28–A29, and show the
L/R Pan curve.
2 Show the F/B Pan curve on tracks A30–A31.
3 Show the U/D Pan curve on tracks A32–A33.
You can clearly see that each of these tracks has very active pan automation.

NOTE All Fairlight Consoles include Curve buttons that can be used to quickly show
a user-defined automation curve for all selected tracks.
Visualizing Flying Objects with the

Fairlight Space View Scope
The Immersive Audio toolset in the Fairlight menu includes the Space View scope. This
unique audio scope offers a spatial representation of the flying objects and the theater.
You can use the Space View scope to visualize the relationship between the objects and
the fixed speakers as well as the overall space where the audience will experience the
immersive sound. In this exercise, you’ll open the Space View scope and view all the flying
objects in context during playback.
1 Choose Fairlight > Immersive Audio > Space View Scope. At the bottom of the Space
View Scope, select the Show Beds option.
The Space View scope opens. Here you can see 11 purple spheres to represent the
7.1.2 bed track speakers and green spheres that represent the object tracks. The color
of the spheres in the Space View scope is based on their track color. The “Show active
level only” checkbox lets you choose to show all the track objects (unchecked) or only
the tracks with active levels (checked).

2 Start playback from the beginning of the clips. During playback, watch the objects in
the Space View scope. Stop playback.
3 Solo tracks A28–A33.
4 Select tracks A28–A33, right-click any of the selected track headers, and change the
color of the tracks to orange.
5 At the bottom of Space View Scope, choose “Show only selected” from the Objects
dropdown menu. Start playback from the beginning of the clips. Watch the Space
View scope.

As you can see, these six tracks follow the same panning sometimes. You can watch
the panning curves, the Space View scope, and the viewer to see how the re-recording
mixer utilized the object panning to create the overall immersive experience. The
orange color will make the first six object tracks much easier to see among the
other objects.
6 Unsolo and deselect the A28–A33 tracks. Choose Show All from the Objects
dropdown menu.
7 Play the clips one more time to see and hear the relationship of the orange tracks and
the other object tracks. Feel free to show different pan curves for the A28–A33 tracks
or any of the object tracks.
8 When you’re finished, stop playback and close the Space View scope.
Creating a Dolby Atmos

Timeline Preset
DaVinci Resolve 18 includes a new Fairlight Configuration Preset that allows you to save all
the essential elements of a timeline, including tracks, track formats, effects, and even the
patching. Since this demo project provided by Dolby includes the full 128 channels with
one bed track and 118 object tracks, it’s the perfect project to use as a preset.
1 Choose Fairlight > Presets Library.

2 In the Presets Library window, set the “Filter by” dropdown menu to Fairlight
Configuration Presets.
3 In the Presets Library, click Save New.
The Create Fairlight Configuration Preset dialog opens.
4 In the Preset Name field, type Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 plus 4 VCA.
5 Click OK.
6 Close the Preset Library.
The new preset is added to the list and can be applied to a new timeline. You’ll test-
drive the new preset at the end of this lesson.
Creating a Dolby Atmos Timeline Preset 647

Exporting Master File
You can export a Dolby Atmos master file as either an IMF IAB mezzanine for packaging
that includes video or as an audio-only ADM BWF, right from the Fairlight timeline. These
same options are also available in the deliver page. In this exercise, you’ll export the
timeline as an ADM BWF (Broadcast Wave File). Exporting a Dolby Atmos master file from
the Fairlight timeline uses the timeline name as the filename. At the moment, this timeline
is called Timeline 4. Let’s take a moment to change the timeline name for the purposes of
this exercise.
1 Look at the Timeline shortcut menu in the upper-left corner of the timeline to verify
the name of the current timeline.
2 In the media pool, locate the current timeline.
3 Change the timeline name to L14 DF Master.
Just like other bouncing and delivery methods, you will need to mark a range in the
timeline to export.
5 Press R for the Range mode tool. Click any of the timeline clips to set a range for the
entire clip. Then press A to return to the Selection tool.
6 Choose Fairlight > Immersive Audio > Export Master File.

7 In the Export Immersive Master dialog, set the File Name to Timeline Name and the
Format to Dolby Atmos ADM BWF.
Notice that the Source is automatically set to the Atmos Send Patching, which you saw
earlier in the Patch Input/Output window. This patching passes the signal through
the sends to the internal Dolby Atmos Renderer for processing and to generate a new
Dolby Atmos master file.
8 Click Export.
9 In the Export Immersive Master finder window, navigate to the NF Dolby Atmos
Deliverables folder on the Desktop. Click Save.

The Generating Dolby Atmos Master dialog shows the progress bar. When the
progress is finished, the new L15 NF Master.wav file will be located in the NF Dolby
Atmos Deliverables folder on your desktop.
That concludes your Dolby Atmos exploration with the Nature’s Fury project. Feel free to
use it as a study guide for observing, listening, and exploring Dolby Atmos integration in
DaVinci Resolve 18.
Enabling Dolby Atmos for Mixing

The Fairlight page in DaVinci Resolve 18 includes all the tools you need for mixing and
creating original Dolby Atmos content. There are many methods for mixing Dolby Atmos.
You can start with a 7.1 mix and add a new Dolby Atmos Bed track and Bus or start with an
empty project containing 1 Dolby Atmos 7.1.2 track and an additional 118 mono tracks that
can be used as object tracks.
To enable a project for Dolby Atmos, you’ll need to go to the System Preferences > Video
and Audio I/O > Immersive Audio settings. Then you can create Dolby Atmos busses and
tracks as needed. From there, you can add content or split multichannel tracks into mono
tracks so they can be panned as individual objects. Use your imagination and the 3D space
to pan objects in any way that you choose.
For this exercise, you’ll create a new project and check the necessary settings for creating
and mixing Dolby Atmos content.
1 Choose File > New Project.
2 In the Create New Project dialog, type Dolby Atmos test.
The new Dolby Atmos test project opens.
3 Choose DaVinci Resolve > Preferences to open the System Preferences window.

4 Click Video and Audio I/O in the sidebar, if necessary, to show the Immersive
Audio options.
At the bottom of the Video and Audio I/O settings, you’ll see the Immersive Audio
formats that you can enable and work with in DaVinci Resolve 18. You can enable as
many formats as you choose
5 Check the Enable Dolby Atmos option, if necessary. Then click Save.
Once you have enabled Dolby Atmos for a project, you can create Dolby Atmos tracks
and busses. You can also enable Dolby Atmos for existing projects, like Hyperlight, so
you can expand the soundtrack to a full Dolby Atmos mix.
Applying a Configuration Preset

Using a preset to configure a new timeline is as easy as selecting the preset in the Create
New Timeline dialog. In this exercise, you’ll create a new timeline named Dolby Atmos
Preset and apply the preset that you created earlier. Once applied, the timeline should be
ready for creating your own Dolby Atmos mix.

1 Choose File > New Timeline.
2 In the Create New Timeline dialog, name the new timeline Dolby Atmos Preset.
3 Check the option to Use Fairlight Preset and choose the Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 plus 4 VCA
preset from the dropdown menu.
4 Click Create.
Voila! A new timeline opens with the exact track setup and patching that you had in the
Nature’s Fury project. Even the orange track color on the A28–A33 tracks was included
in the preset.
The only thing you need to tidy up is clearing the orange track color and resetting
the panners since the preset assigned whatever position they were in (based on the
playhead) when you created the preset.

5 Select the A28–A33 tracks. Right-click one of the selected track headers and choose
Clear Color.
You can easily select all the tracks in the Tracks Index and then use the Remove Attributes
dialogue to remove the preset’s panning. First, you’ll need to turn off Automaton.
6 In the Timeline toolbar, click the Automation button to turn off Automation.
7 Hide the media pool. Show the Tracks Index.
8 In the Tracks Index, select the A2 Dialog Object 1 track.
9 Scroll down to the bottom of the Trackslist and Shift-select the A109 Effects
Object 82 track.
10 Right-click any of the selected track headers and choose Remove Attributes.
11 In the Remove Attributes dialog, check the Pan option and then click Apply.
The mono panners for all 118 of the object tracks have been reset.

Save the Preset Please!
Now that you have reset the empty Dolby Atmos project, it’s a good idea to save it as a
preset to update the previous preset that you made. Go to the Preset Library, select the
current preset if needed, and click Save New. A dialog will give you the option to Cancel,
Update, or Create New. Update the current preset.
Well done! In a matter of seconds, you just saved the time and tedium of setting up a new
Dolby Atmos project from scratch.
While you have the empty timeline open, go to the Patch Input/Output window to see the
Dolby Atmos Send patching.
NOTE If you want to learn more about working with Dolby Atmos, you’ll find more
information at the Dolby.com website. Here are some helpful links to some of the
Dolby Atmos resources.
https://www.dolby.com/technologies/dolby-atmos/
https://professional.dolby.com/content-creation/Dolby-Atmos-for-content-creators/.
Lesson Review
1 True or false? Dolby Atmos requires DaVinci Resolve Studio.
2 Where do you enable a project for Dolby Atmos workflows?

a) Inspector
b) New Project window
c) System Preferences
d) Dolby Atmos Renderer settings

3 In DaVinci Resolve 18 Studio, you can export which types of Dolby Atmos master files?
a) XML and AAF
b) .ATMOS and BWF
c) PCM and IMF IAB
d) IMF IAB and ADM BWF
4 Where are the Immersive tools located on the Fairlight page?

a) Fairlight menu
b) Dolby Atmos Render menu
c) Patch Input/Output window
d) Mixer
5 Where in the Fairlight page do you find the option to import a Dolby Atmos master file
so it will recreate the full mix, including content, automation, bed, and object tracks?
a) File menu
b) Fairlight menu
c) Media pool
d) Mixer
6 What does the 2 represent if you are monitoring a Dolby Atmos 7.1.2 master file?
a) overhead channels
b) LFE subwoofer channels
c) immersive channels
d) object channels
Lesson Review 655

Answers
1 True.
2 c. Immersive audio formats including Dolby Atmos are enabled in the Video and Audio
I/O panel of the System Preferences window.
3 d. You can export IMF IAB and ADM BWF master files from either the Fairlight timeline
or the deliver page.
4 a
5 b. You can import a master file in the media pool as a single clip that will play back
through the Dolby Atmos Renderer, or import a master file through the Fairlight menu
Immersive tools to recreate the entire mix.
6 a
Congratulations!
You have completed The Fairlight Audio Guide to DaVinci Resolve 18 and are ready
to explore more editing, visual effects, color grading, and audio mixing functionality
using the additional certified books in this series. Completing all the lessons in this book
has prepared you to become a certified DaVinci Resolve user. You can take the online
certification exam by following the link below to earn your certificate.
We also invite you to become part of the DaVinci Resolve community by joining the web
forum on the Blackmagic Design website. https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com
There, you can ask further questions about the creative aspects of editing, color
correction, visual effects, and audio mixing.
We hope that you have found DaVinci Resolve 18’s professional audio tools to be intuitive
to learn and a perfect fit to become the hub of your creative workflow.
Test your skills by taking the online assessment: https://bit.ly/3yC29Ym

Index
NUMBERS marking In and Out points, 23–24

3D pan controls, 443–450 moving and trimming, 38–47
moving between tracks, 187–190
A moving to audio layers, 117–119
adaptive tracks, 172 moving to timeline grid, 38–47
ADR (automatic dialogue normalization, 220–227
replacement), 58, 83
placing in panoramic sound
ADR cue list, importing, 95–101 field, 432–443
ADR cues previewing, 11–13
creating, 89–92 previewing in reverse speed, 342–343
recording in timeline, 92–95 retiming, 325–331
sorting, 98–100 scrubbing using loop jog, 200–205
ADR session, setting up, 83–89 scrubbing with JKL keys, 23
Alt key. See keyboard shortcuts
selecting, 124, 186
animating, clips vs. tracks, 539–548
selecting and disabling, 64–65
animation, recording, 550
speed changes, 344–347
Arm buttons, 74–75
splitting, 402–405
audible glitches, isolating, 321–322
trimming to timeline grid, 38–47
audio channels
unlinking, 168–171
evaluating, 155–159
audio controls, adjusting, 304
identifying, 159–162
audio editing, streamlining Fairlight for,
renaming in timeline, 172–175
115–116. See also editing
audio clips. See also custom clips;
audio finishing, mixed stems, 597–602.
soundtracks; source clips
See also finishing tracks
adding to timeline, 17–19
audio keyframes, deleting, 218
aligning and splitting, 119–128
audio layers, moving clips to, 117–119.
balancing, 220–227 See also layers
bouncing, 308 audio metering, setting for recording, 68
changing levels in timeline, 38–37 Audio Pan controls, 438, 443
changing volume levels, 18, 24–26
Audio panel, Inspector, 25
copying and pasting, 355
audio post-production, dynamic
editing portions of, 20–24 range, 301
fitting in timeline, 42 audio recordings, choosing locations
marking and editing parts of, 20–24 for, 66–68
Index 657
audio scrollers, using for Bounce Selected Tracks to New Layer, 271
synchronization, 349–352 bounced files, locating, 588
audio track layers bouncing
crossfades, 144–150 audio clips, 308
nested timelines, 128–132 busses to create stems, 584–586
project preparation, 114–115, 141–143 to formats, 586–592
showing, 81–82 mixes, 580–584
audio tracks. See dialogue tracks; source stems, 588–590
audio tracks; tracks
tracks to create stems, 584–586
auto-ducking, 478
breathing and dialogue, 197–198
auto-leveling, applying to clips, 220–227
Bus Assign window, 515–516
automating
bus mapping, viewing, 515–516
pan controls, 555–559
bus tracks
plug-ins, 560–562
hiding in timeline, 71
track changes, 548–555
using in timeline, 563–565
automation. See also mixing with
automation busses. See also output busses;
submix busses
controls, 4, 71, 549
adding to outputs, 523–525
copying and pasting, 564–565
assigning to outputs, 523–525
moving, 565–570
auxiliary reverb bus, 497–506
Undo command, 559
automation curves, 547 bouncing to create stems, 584–586
Automation Follows Edit, 565–570 channel formats, 495
automation values, setting with formats, 488–496

Pencil tool, 557 monitoring, 525–530
auxiliary reverb bus, creating, 497–506 project preparation, 497
rearranging n tracks index, 520–522
B simplifying mixing, 507–517
background tracks, balancing, 426–428. using in mixer, 517
See also tracks
bussing formats, 488–496
Batch Fade Settings window, 257–261
bed groups, Dolby Atmos master C
file, 631–635
Cache Audio Effect, 309
“bed” track, 265–269. See also tracks
Capture settings, 67
Beep settings, ADR session, 87
certification program, xiv, xvii
beep track patching, revealing, 100–101
checkerboard edit
bias, defined, 281
cleaning up, 191–193
binaural rendering, Dolby Atmos
integration, 617–620 Fixed Playhead mode, 194
bins, creating, 66 increasing size and waveform, 198–200
Blackmagic Cloud, xxii loop jog, 200–205
Blackmagic Design Training and scrolling playback, 193–194
Certification Program, xiv–xv scrubbing audio, 200–205
658 Index
trimming synced audio, 194–198 previewing in reverse speed, 342–343
Chorus plug-in, using to multiply retiming, 325–331
voices, 360–364 scrubbing using loop jog, 200–205
Cinema Viewer mode, 338–340 scrubbing with JKL keys, 23
clicks, removing at sample level, 318–324 selecting, 124, 186
Clip Attributes window, 158–159, 171–172,
selecting and disabling, 64–65
176–177. See also Remove Attributes
speed changes, 344–347
clip automation, 539–548
splitting, 402–405
clip colors, changing, 116
trimming to timeline grid, 38–47
Clip Editing view, switching to Track
Automation view, 541–545 unlinking, 168–171
clip keyframes, editing modes, 541 cloud. See Blackmagic Cloud
clip levels colors, applying to clips and
adjusting, 211–213 tracks, 116, 585
balancing before adding Command key. See keyboard shortcuts

effects, 372–373 comp, defined, 119
changing, 213–219 compressing dialogue tracks, 472–475.
changing in timeline, 29–32 See also sidechain compression
resetting, 186–187 controls window, opening, 437
Clip Pitch controls, 356–357 Copy command, 189
clip versions, mixing, 359 copying and pasting
clips. See also custom clips; soundtracks; automation, 564–565
source clips clips, 355
adding to timeline, 17–19 crossfades
aligning and splitting, 119–128 adding to clips, 261–264
balancing, 220–227 creating in audio track layers, 144–150
bouncing, 308 .csv list, ADR Setup window, 96
changing levels in timeline, 38–37 Cue Sort menu, 99
changing volume levels, 18, 24–26 cumulative sound, thickening, 357–360
copying and pasting, 355 custom clips, delivering, 602–605. See also
editing portions of, 20–24 audio clips
fitting in timeline, 42 customized presets, saving, 378–380.
marking and editing parts of, 20–24 See also presets
marking In and Out points, 23–24 Cut command, 189–190
moving and trimming, 38–47
moving between tracks, 187–190
D
moving to audio layers, 117–119 DaVinci Resolve, downloading, xv–xvi
moving to timeline grid, 38–47 dB (decibels), 207, 301
normalization, 220–227 Decompose Preserving Audio Data
placing in panoramic sound dialog, 131
field, 432–443 De-Esser, reducing sibilance, 299–301
previewing, 11–13 Delete Empty Tracks, 169
Index 659
deleting auto-leveling to balance clips, 220–227
audio keyframes, 218 checkerboard editing, 184–191
ranges in timeline, 44–47 compressing, 472–475
unwanted sounds, 242–246 evaluating, 155–159
delivering evaluating and balancing levels, 162
custom clips, 602–605 increasing size and waveform, 198–200
mixes, 593–596 panning, 446–447
tracks, 578–580 reading meters for, 206–207
delivery options, Dolby Atmos, 621–622 sweetening with EQ, 461–467
diagetic versus non-diagetic Divergence controls, 441
sound, 337–338 “do to all selected” shortcut, 503. See also
dialogue Select All command
de-breathing, 197–198 Dolby Atmos
dynamic range, 207 adding files to timeline, 610–613
dialogue clarity, improving, 482–484 analyzing levels, 621–623
dialogue clip levels, balancing, 205–220 auto-patching to renderer, 635–636
dialogue editing, 154–155, 184. binaural rendering, 617–620
See also editing
configuration preset, 651–654
dialogue equalization. See also
delivery options, 623–628
EQ (equalization)
enabling for mixing, 650–651
adjusting, 461
exporting master file, 648–650
applying, 454–457
“flying object” pan automation, 641–646
settings for comparison, 457–460
importing files to timeline, 610–613
dialogue frequency levels, 460–461
monitoring format, 638–639
Dialogue Leveler, 222–227
normalizing levels, 621–623
Dialogue Leveler Track FX, 310–317
panning automation in timeline, 643
dialogue levels, establishing
targets, 207–210 playback format, 614–615
dialogue mixer, 295. See also mixer project preparation, 608–609
dialogue recording, ADR, 83 rendering downmixes, 616–621
dialogue repair syncing video from A/V source
Elastic Wave time controls, 325–331 clip, 636–637
finding problems, 278 timeline preset, 646–647
gating low-level noise, 302–305 Dolby Atmos master file
processor intensive plug-ins, 308–310 bed groups, 631–635
removing clicks, 318–324 exporting, 648–650
retiming audio, 325–331 IMF package, 625

testing skills, 305–307 importing, 629–640
voice isolation, 310–317 object groups, 631–635
dialogue stems, recording, 591–592. VCA groups, 631–635
See also mixed stems; stems working with, 625
dialogue tracks. See also tracks Dolby Atmos Renderer, 616–621, 639–640
660 Index
Dolby Atmos timeline preset, Fader Snap mode, automation, 550
creating, 646–647 faders, controlling, 518
doubling tracks, 352–360 fades, adding to smooth sound
Down Arrow, using to move between edits, 256–264
clips, 188–190 Fairlight bussing formats, 488–496
downloading Fairlight FX plug-ins. See also plug-ins
DaVinci Resolve, xv adding to clips, 49–53
sound effects, xvii applying to clips, 279–285
downmixes, rendering, 616–620. combining speech modes, 291–295
See also mixes Graphical EQ controls, 296
dubbing mixer, 410 hums, 281
ducking, 478 reducing noise, 285–291
dynamic range sibilance, 295–301
audio post-production, 301 using controls in Inspector, 53–54
controlling, 467–475 Fairlight interface, streamlining for audio
editing, 115–116
E Fairlight page
ear fatigue, 562 bouncing mixes in, 580–584
Echo plug-in, 560–561 layout, 3
edit page, showing, 174 showing, 174
editing. See also audio editing; dialogue Fairlight Sound Library. See Sound Library
editing; Layered Audio Editing mode Fast Forward button, 4
portions of clips, 20–24 files, adding to timeline, 610–613
samples to correct waveforms, 322–324 filtering high frequencies, 385
track automation, 545–548 finishing tracks, project preparation,
Editing Panel, User Preferences, 71 578–580. See also audio finishing
Elastic Wave speed keyframes, Undo Fixed Bus format, 488
command, 328 Fixed Playhead mode, 194.
Elastic Wave time controls, 325–331 See also playhead
EQ (equalization). See also dialogue “flying object” pan automation, 641–646
equalization Focus mode multi-tool, 232–238, 262
creating sound barriers, 381–385 Foley footsteps, finishing, 401–402
sweetening dialogue tracks, 461–467 Foley Sampler
EQ carving, dialogue clarity, 482–484 adding sound effects to, 392–393
EQ controls, Fairlight FX plug-ins, 296 exploring, 390–393
Equalizer, Inspector, 296 recording footsteps to picture, 399–400
Extend Edit Selection submenu, 245 saving to Preset Manager, 402
transients to split clips, 402–405
F Foley sound effects
Fade In control area, 258 analyzing, 405–406
Fade Out controls, 258 evaluating, 365–367
fader controls, 425, 428–432 mapping and splitting sounds, 395–399
Index 661
modifying sample mapping, 393–395 J
sync point for alignment, 386–390 J key (play backward), 23
working with, 385 JKL keys
Foley sound, explained, 246 pressing, 123
footsteps. See Foley sound effects scrubbing with, 23
frequency filters, 385 using with looped playback, 138
FX, practicing, 109 jump navigation options, setting, 118–119
G K
gaps, filling with room tone, 264–274 K key (stop playback), 23
gating low-level noise, 302–305 Keyboard Customization window, 79
Grabber tool, Focus mode multi- keyboard shortcuts
tool, 232–238 audio scrubbing, 202
Graphical EQ controls, Fairlight FX Copy command, 189
plug-ins, 296 Cut command, 189
Grid View Options menu, 40–41 dipping sounds with, 246–248
“do to all selected,” 503
H
edit page, 174
headphones, checking, 438
Fairlight page, 174
hums, working with, 281, 305
fitting clips in timeline, 42
Hyperlight project, 61 keyframes, 29
markers, 22
I
moving clips between tracks, 187–190
IAB Dolby Atmos master file, 625
Nudge commands, 122
IMF package, Dolby Atmos master, 625
Out points, 23–24, 54
importing
Paste command, 189–190
ADR cue list, 95–101 play backward, 23
Dolby Atmos master, 629–640 play forward, 23
Dolby Atmos master file, 629–640 In points, 23–24, 54
files to timeline, 610–613 Project Settings window, 67
In points Range mode, 44–47, 140
clearing, 54 Razor tool, 123–124
marking, 23–24 Record button, 79
Input style, 75 Select All command, 124–128, 223
Inspector stop playback, 23
Audio panel, 25 timeline duplication, 114
Equalizer, 296 track selection, 190
keyframes, 218 zoom levels, 28
pitch controls, 356–357 zooming, 198
Reverb plug-in, 372 zooming in to timeline clips, 64
interface, resizing, 421–422 zooming timeline, 134
662 Index
keyframes. See also speed keyframes Merge Import button, 98
adding, 29 Meter plug-in, 225
changing clip levels, 213–219 meters, reading for dialogue, 206–207
Inspector, 218 microphone, setting up, 58–59
mixed stems, audio finishing with, 597‑602.
L See also dialogue stems; stems
L key (play forward), 23 mixer. See also dialogue mixer
Latch mode, automation, 549 button, 5
Layered Audio Editing mode, 250–256. Path Settings, 76
See also editing showing, 48
layers, bouncing selections to, 269–272. Mixer Options menu, 522
See also audio layers mixes. See also downmixes
lesson files, acquiring, xvi bouncing in Fairlight page, 580–584
Linked Selection button, timeline, 169 delivering, 593–596
linking, tracks for single-fader massaging, 574
control, 428–432
mixing
List View button, 13
clip versions, 359
Local project library, creating, xviii–xix
simplifying using busses, 507–517
Loop button, 4
mixing with automation. See also
loop jog, using to scrub audio, 200–205 automation
looped playback, using to select clips vs. tracks, 539–548
takes, 138–141 project preparation, 538
loudness monitoring
American standards, 418 loudness in mixes, 581–584
monitoring in mixes, 581–584 outputs and busses, 525–530
of sound effects, 371 track input, 75–77
loudness history curves, showing, 568–570 monitoring levels, setting, 413–420
low-level noise, gating, 302–305. monitoring panel
See also noise
hiding, 6
M resizing, 421
mono tracks, panning, 599–602
markers
moved clips, undoing, 126
moving between, 21
moving
moving to update viewer, 237
automation with clips, 565–570
setting, 22
premixed timeline, 570–574
working with, 14–16
multichannel mono tracks,
marking panning, 599–602
In and Out points, 23–24 multichannel tracks, converting to linked
portions of clips, 20–24 groups, 162–164. See also tracks
media pool, previewing audio music levels, dipping, 478–481. See also
clips in, 11–13 stinger music clip
media sync, Blackmagic Cloud Store, xxii Mute button, 9–10, 207
Index 663
N percussion transition effect,
creating, 341–347
Nature’s Fury, 608
physical sound barriers, creating, 381–385
Navigation Options, 118
pitch changes, applying to clips, 356–357
nested timelines, working with, 128–132.
See also timeline play backward ( J key), 23
noise, reducing, 285–291. See also play forward (L key), 23
low‑level noise playback, stopping, 5
normalization of clips, 220–227 playback behavior, changing, 65–66
normalizing levels, Dolby Atmos, 621–622 playback format, Dolby Atmos, 614–615
Nudge commands, 121–122 playhead. See also Fixed Playhead mode
locating, 4
O moving, 8, 116
object groups, Dolby Atmos master plosives. See also unwanted sounds
file, 631–635
defined, 219
Option key. See keyboard shortcuts
reducing with keyframes, 238–248
Out points
plug-ins. See also Fairlight FX plug-ins;
clearing, 54 processor intensive plug-ins
marking, 23–24 applying, 283–285
output busses. See also busses automating, 560–562
creating, 518–520 combining speech modes, 291–295
splitting, 530–533 time-based, 365
outputs Pointer mode, returning to, 195
adding tracks and busses to, 523–525 Preferences panel, User Preferences, 202
monitoring, 525–530 premixed timeline, moving to master
timeline, 570–574. See also timeline
P pre-mixing levels, project
pan automation, “flying object,” 641–646 preparation, 410–413
pan controls, automating, 555–559 presets, naming, 379. See also
panner viewer, 3D pan controls, 444 customized presets
panning, multichannel mono Presets Library, 475–477

tracks, 599–602 previewing scenes for context, 61–66
panning tracks, project processor intensive plug-ins, 308–310.
preparation, 410–413 See also plug-ins
panoramic photograph, 450 project library, creating, xvii
panoramic sound field, placing audio Project Settings window, opening, 67
in, 432–443 projects, opening and playing, 2–5
panoramic stereo field, 450
parametric equalizer, 455 R
Paste command, 189–190 Range mode, 44–47, 140
patching tracks, 72–77 Range Selection tool, 45, 124–128
Path Settings, mixer, 76 Razor tool, 120, 123–124
Pencil tool, automation values, 557 Record button, 4, 79, 207
664 Index
recording sidechain compression, dipping music
animation, 550 levels, 478–481. See also compressing
dialogue tracks
dialogue stems, 591–592
single-fader control, linking tracks
System Generator, 101–108
for, 428–432
in timeline, 77–83
Slope dial, Fairlight FX plug-ins, 282
reference tracks, using for monitoring
levels, 413–420 Snap mode, automation, 549
Remove Attributes, 223. See also Clip SNR (signal-to-noise ratio), 301

Attributes window Solo button, 9–10, 207
Render Queue, 593 sound barriers, creating with EQ, 381–385
Render Settings, 593 sound design
rendering downmixes, Dolby project preparation, 336–338
Atmos, 616–620 reversed percussion transition, 341–347
re-recording mixer, 410 sound edits, smoothing, 256–264
resizing interface, 421–422 sound effects
reverb, simulating spaces with, 373–378 adding to Foley Sampler, 392–393
reverb bus, creating, 497–506
adding to Sound Library, 34–38
Reverb plug-in, 372
auditioning, 36–38
reverse speed, previewing clips
downloading, xvii
in, 342–343
loudness of, 371
reversed percussion transition effect,
creating, 341–347 naming, 379
Rewind button, 4 syncing to picture, 348–352
room tone, filling gaps with, 264–274 Sound Library
adding sound effects to, 34–38
S creating project library for, xvii
samples of clips, resetting, 323 downloading, xix–xxi
scenes, previewing for context, 61–66 sounds. See also unwanted sounds
“scratch” voiceover, 68. See also VO clean versus dry, 353
(voiceover)
diegetic versus non-diagetic, 337–338
scrubbing
spaces through, 373
audio with loop jog, 200–205
thickening, 352–360
with JKL keys, 23
soundtrack stems, analyzing, 338–340
Select All command, 124, 223. See also “do
soundtracks. See also audio clips; tracks
to all selected” shortcut
balancing levels, 47–54
Selection tool, 186, 232–238
creating manually, 33
selections, bouncing to layers, 269–272
SFX experimentation, creating timeline evaluating tracks, 7–11
for, 343–344 markers, 14–16
Shift key. See keyboard shortcuts monitoring video only, 6–7
sibilance naming and moving, 19
identifying, 295–299 opening projects, 2–6
reducing with De-Esser, 299–301 playing projects, 2–6
Index 665
soundtracks (continued) synced audio, trimming in
showing and hiding, 26–28 timeline, 194–198
Undo command, 31 synchronization, video and audio scrollers
for, 349–352
zooming in and out of, 26–28
System Generator, recording, 101–108
source audio tracks, deleting, 180
system requirements, xv
source channels, changing in timeline, 180
source clips, remapping in Media Pool, T
175–179. See also audio clips
Space View scope, 446, 644–646 takes
spaces, simulating with reverb, 373–378 selecting, 138–141
speech modes, combining, 291–295 Undo command, 400
speed changes, applying to clips, 344–347 thickening sound, 357–360
speed keyframes, using to retime waveforms, through edits, 119
328–331. See also keyframes time-based plug-ins
split edits, 119 applying, 368–371
splitting mixing and matching, 380–381
clips, 402–405 timecode, setting, 142–143
clips with Range Selection tool, 124–128 timeline. See also nested timelines;
output busses, 530–533 premixed timeline
takes in layers, 123 creating for recording, 69–71
spotting list, defined, 338 deleting ranges in, 44–47
SPPM (sample peak program meter), 210 duplicating, 114
Spread control, 439, 441 Linked Selection button, 169
start timecode, setting, 142–143 moving to start and end, 6
stems. See also dialogue stems; recording in, 77–83
mixed stems ruler, 4
comparing, 592 selecting ranges in, 44–47
creating, 584 SFX experimentation, 343–344
renaming and bouncing, 588–590 zooming, 134
stereo spread, controlling, 437–443 Timeline View Options menu, 39, 118
Stereo Width plug-in, 447–450 toggle automation, 4
stinger music clip, 13. See also music levels Touch mode, automation, 549–554
Stop button, 4 track automation
stop playback (K key), 23 adding and editing, 545–548
submix busses. See also busses implementing, 539–548
assigning tracks to, 510–514 Track Automation view, switching to Clip
benefits of, 517 Editing view, 541–545
defined, 507 track changes, automating, 548–555
sweetening track controls, swiping on or off, 27
controlling dynamic range, 467–475 Track FX
dialogue with EQ, 461–467 applying, 315–317
EQ for dialogue tracks, 454–461 enabling in mixer, 313
666 Index
track groups, unlinking, 165–167 takes, 400
track headers, controls in, 8 volume overlay, 162
track input, monitoring, 75–77 unlinking
track levels clips, 168–171
balancing, 47–54 track groups, 165–167
evaluating and setting, 423–425 unwanted sounds. See also
track pan controls, 429 plosives; sounds
track presets, saving and dipping with keyframes, 246–248
applying, 475–477 Focus Mode Multi-Tool, 232–238
track type, changing, 71 project preparation, 230–231
tracks. See also background tracks; “bed” reducing plosives, 238–248
track; dialogue tracks; multichannel
replacing words, 248–256
tracks; soundtracks
selecting and deleting, 242–246
adding to outputs, 523–525
Up Arrow, using to move between
bouncing to create stems, 584–586
clips, 188–190
controlling stereo spread, 437–443
User Preferences
creating manually, 33
Editing Panel, 71
doubling to thicken sound, 352–360
Preferences panel, 202
enlarging, 116
evaluating during playback, 7–11 V
hiding, 26–28 VCA groups, Dolby Atmos
linking for single-fader control, 428–432 master file, 631–635
naming and moving, 19 vertical alignment, constraining, 139
patching for recording, 72–77 video only, monitoring, 6–7
resizing, 28 video scrollers, using for
selecting, 190 synchronization, 349–352
selecting and deselecting, 9 viewer
showing, 26–28 resizing, 421
zooming in and out of, 26–28 updating, 237
Tracks index, 26–28 VO (voiceover), 58. See also
tracks index rearranging busses “scratch” voiceover
in, 520–522 voice isolation, repairing dialogue
transients, using to split clips, 402–405 with, 310–317
Trim tool, Focus mode multi-tool, 232–238 Voice Isolation Track FX, 310–317
trimming synced audio, 194–198 voiceover and ADR
audio locations, 66–68
U microphone setup, 58–59
Undo command patching tracks, 72–77
automation, 559 project preparation, 59–61
Elastic Wave speed keyframes, 328 recording in timeline, 77–83
moved clips, 126 recording System Generator, 101–109
soundtracks, 31 scene preview, 61–66
Index 667
timeline for recording, 69–71
voiceover composite track,
building, 132–141
voices, multiplying, 360–364
volume fader, 207
volume levels
changing for clips, 18, 203
changing in Inspector, 24–26
protecting, 134
volume overlay, Undo command, 162
W
waveforms
comparing, 120
correcting, 322–324
increasing for trimming, 198–200
retiming, 328–331
words from outtakes, replacing, 248–256
writing automation, 548
Z
zooming
in and out of tracks, 26–28, 198
timeline, 134
into timeline clips, 64
668 Index
Index 669
DaVinci
Resolve 18
DaVinci Resolve 18 features a dedicated Fairlight audio page built
right in! This official Blackmagic Design hands on training guide
will teach you the art of sound editing, sweetening, recording,
mixing and delivering. Beginning audio editors and assistants
will find clear, workflow driven lessons, while seasoned audio
professionals will quickly learn Fairlight’s user friendly tools for
creating incredible soundtracks. Best of all, you never need to Full Digital Audio Workstation
send projects out to another application, because Fairlight is just
a click away from your editing timeline!
What You’ll Learn

• Navigating and customizing the Fairlight page
• Connecting to external sound libraries
• Creating and editing tracks Professional Recording and ADR Tools
• Setting up and recording voiceover and ADR tracks
• Working with audio track layers to stack, split and build a composite
• Evaluating and setting channel mapping for multichannel clips
• Balancing and normalizing dialogue tracks
• Finding and fixing common issues with the edit selection tool
• Repairing and replacing unwanted sounds like clicks, pops and hums Powerful AI-based Dialogue Repair
• Using voice isolation and the dialogue leveler to improve dialogue tracks
• Enhancing and sweetening tracks with EQ and dynamics
• Automating track changes over time
• Working buses to simplify mixing
• Finishing your soundtrack, bouncing tracks and delivering a final mix
• Exploring Dolby Atmos integration
Dolby Atmos Integration
Who This Book is For

This book is designed for both beginners and professionals. Beginners
will find clear lessons to get you up and running quickly. If you’re a
professional switching from another system, you’ll find lessons that cover
everything from recording and editing tracks to mixing and finishing.
You’ll also find dozens of pro tips and tricks that will help you work faster!

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DAVINCI RESOLVE 18

The Fairlight Audio Guide to

© 2023 by Blackmagic Design Pty Ltd

To report errors, please send a note to learning@blackmagicdesign.com.

Series Editor: Patricia Montesion

Editors: Dan Foster

Cover Design: Blackmagic Design

Layout: Blackmagic Design, Danielle Foster

2 Recording Voiceover and ADR 57

3 Working with Audio Track Layers 113

4 Preparing Multichannel Clips for Dialogue Editing 153

5 Editing Dialogue Tracks 183

7 Advanced Dialogue Repair 277

8 Enhancing the Soundtrack with Sound Design 335

10 Sweetening the Mix 453

11 Simplifying the Mix with Busses 487

12 Mixing with Automation 537

13 Finishing and Delivering Tracks 577

14 Exploring Dolby Atmos Integration 607

About the Author

x Acknowledgments – About the Author

Who This Book Is For xi

xii Getting Started

What You’ll Learn

Getting Started xiii

Lessons 9, 10, 11, and 12

The Blackmagic Design Training and Certification Program

— The Beginner’s Guide to DaVinci Resolve 18

xiv Getting Started

Download DaVinci Resolve

1 Open a web browser on your Windows or Mac computer.

2 In the address field of your web browser, type: www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/

3 On the DaVinci Resolve landing page, click the Download button.

5 Follow the installation instructions to complete the installation.

Acquiring the Lesson Files

To Download and Install the DaVinci Resolve Lessons Files:

1 Open a web browser on your Windows or Mac computer.

2 In the address field of your web browser, type: www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/

9 In your chosen storage location—for example, Documents—create a new folder called

Your media is ready for the first lesson.

xvi Getting Started

Downloading Sound Effects to

Creating a New Project Library

Getting Started xvii

When the Add Project Library window appears, do the following:

— In the Name field, type soundfx.

xviii Getting Started

4 In the New Database dialog, click Create.

You are now ready to begin Lesson 1, “Building a Soundtrack.”

Download the Fairlight Sound Library

Getting Started xix

1 Open DaVinci Resolve, if necessary.

Getting Started xxi

Media Sync with Blackmagic Cloud Store

To find out more about these exciting workflows, visit blackmagicdesign.com/products/

xxii Introducing Blackmagic Cloud

Audio post-production is more than Time

format, length, deliverables, or Moving and Trimming Clips

Opening and Playing a Project

2 Lesson 1 Building a Soundtrack

single-channel audio track viewer

multi-channel audio track

timeline audio clips

Opening and Playing a Project 3